The First of Many to Come
by wthtonibelle
Summary: Katsuki has never had romance before Ochaco, so he inevitably struggles with certain relationship matters. Initiating sex, for one. Making a good impression on her parents, for another. [IN PROGRESS]
1. Just A Bit Apprehensive

**Chapter 1: Just A Bit Apprehensive**

Ochaco's new apartment is hardly bigger than a closet. Katsuki surmises that if the two of them stood side by side with their arms outstretched, their fingertips would easily be able to graze the walls.

He had told her as much the first time they were here together, when he had accompanied her for a viewing. She had looked plenty unimpressed herself, but then the agent revealed the dirt-cheap rent, and she immediately changed her mind.

"I don't need anything fancy! It's just a place to sleep in anyway," Ochaco had been quick to defend when Katsuki pointed out that there were probably more spacious lockers than this place advertising itself as an aparment.

Like the rest of their class, she had been living within the UA campus at Heights Alliance for the past two and a half years. Upon their recent graduation however, they have had to pack up their things and leave their rooms, and now Ochaco has settled for this tiny closet of a space to call her new home.

It's way below the standards Katsuki would have expected from the salary she'll be getting as a pro hero, but he knows by now that she has a bad habit of shortchanging herself, so it doesn't come as much of a surprise anymore.

Today, Ochaco finally moves in, and Katsuki has come to help her out. Not that there's much heavy lifting to be done, thanks to her Quirk.

"What do I do with these?" Katsuki asks, gesturing to the three floating boxes that he's pushing effortlessly through the front door. "These are the last ones."

Ochaco, who's attempting to squeeze a mini fridge into the corner of the equally mini kitchen, interrupts her struggle to spare him a glance.

"Put them by the closet please, thank you," she instructs.

Katsuki gives the boxes another shove to float them in the right direction. Seeing that everything else in the apartment is in place, he decides to check the contents of the boxes he had brought in and get started putting them away.

"Release these, won't you?" He calls to Ochaco. "I'll sort them out."

Still busy with the refrigerator, she just gives a distracted nod and presses her fingers together. Gravity returns to the boxes and they drop to the floor by Katsuki's feet. He chooses one at random to start with, rips the packaging tape sealing the top, and finds inside a messy pile of what he assumes to be Ochaco's clothes.

Katsuki arranges himself in a comfortable position on the floor, frowning as he pulls the first shirt out of the box. "Can't you be neater?" he complains. "My folks would be scandalized if they saw this."

"Well, don't tell them I'm messy," Ochaco replies pointedly. Her words are punctuated by a soft thud as she finally gives the refrigerator back its weight.

She proceeds to take out a stash of sweets and cup noodles from a box on the kitchen counter to store them inside the tiny overhead cabinets.

"Don't tell them I live on a diet of junk food either," she adds. "Just focus on my cute points!"

Katsuki snorts. "You do that yourself when you meet them. I'm bringing you over to our place one of these days."

No sound at all comes from Ochaco in reply, so he turns from the pair of jeans he's smoothing out to look at her curiously. He finds her frozen in the middle of closing a cabinet door, her face pale.

"M-m-m-m-m-m-m-m-meet…?" Her voice falters.

"What?" Katsuki asks as he goes back to sorting her clothes. "I already told you my old hag of a mother won't shut up about wanting to meet you."

"B-b-b-b-b-but so soon?" Ochaco blurts out.

"Huh? The fuck are you talking about?" He shoots her an impatient glare. "We've been seeing each other for close to a year."

"Yes, but we've just graduated! I'm not anyone yet!" Ochaco exclaims in a panic, throwing her hands in the air. Then she brings them to her face to cup her cheeks dramatically.

"I'm just a girl from a poor family, and I was an average student at best," she laments. "What if they don't like me, and throw water at me, and offer me money to leave you?"

"What the hell kind of dramas have you been watching?" Katsuki asks with a snicker. "Don't be an idiot."

Ochaco grins at him playfully, dropping the theatrics, but then her expression melts into one of genuine concern. "I'm half-serious, though, Katsuki. What if they don't like me?"

He scoffs. "What's not to like?"

Katsuki doesn't mean for it to sound like flattery, but it kind of comes out that way, and Ochaco very obviously blushes. Embarrassed, he clears his throat.

"I just meant, they're happy enough that someone's putting up with me, so don't worry," he clarifies. Then, as casually as he can, he adds, "Shouldn't I be the one worried about meeting your parents?"

He takes care not to let any hint of apprehension show. But to be completely honest, Katsuki secretly worries about the kind of impression Ochaco's parents might have of him.

Over the past several months since his debut as a pro hero, he has steadily been gaining popularity, but not all for the right reasons. The media enjoys fixating on his explosive personality, treating it like a novelty, and the public in general seems eager to drink it all up.

It has resulted in a rather ungainly reputation for The Explosion Hero Bakugo, and it's widespread enough that Katsuki thinks it isn't unlikely even for Ochaco's parents out in the sticks to be aware of it.

It's not helping that Ochaco is taking her time to whip out a reassurance.

"Well," she begins in a tone that doesn't sound reassuring at all. "My parents have been asking to meet you too."

The way she says it, there's bound to be a 'but', and sure enough, it comes.

"But I don't want to introduce you just yet."

Katsuki's hands still on the jacket he's folding. He wills himself not to make a big deal of Ochaco's words, but as always, his ego is fragile and his tongue has a mind of its own.

"Why not?" he asks coldly. He spits his next words out like a challenge. "You ashamed of me?"

It's not like Katsuki has any delusions about what kind of person he is. He knows he's a punk. He's ill-mannered and temperamental and somewhat of an asshole overall, definitely far from being the ideal boyfriend a girl would be excited to bring home to her parents.

Still, he can't help feeling more than a little offended that Ochaco, of all people, would make him feel as though he's not someone to be proud of.

Ochaco immediately clamors to correct his train of thought, her eyes going round and wide as she waves her hands frantically in front of her face.

"No, no, no, no, no, no," she repeats about a thousand times in rapid succession. "You've got it all wrong! It's not like that at all! Of course I'm not ashamed of you! Why would I be?"

Katsuki shrugs noncommittally, not meeting her eyes, resuming to sort her clothes like a robot. He refuses to look at her, and for a while there's only silence between them.

"I'm not ashamed of you, honest," Ochaco repeats earnestly. "I just don't want to introduce you to my parents just yet because they're a little… they kind of…"

She fidgets, and Katsuki's heart sinks as he realizes what it must be that she's finding so difficult to tell him.

"They don't like me," he finishes the sentence for her flatly. He feels his stomach squirm as his secret fear is confirmed.

"I wouldn't say it's that bad," Ochaco tries to soften the blow. "They're just a bit apprehensive. Just a bit, that's all."

Katsuki grunts. Finishing one box of her clothes, he moves on to the next and tears the packaging tape off with so much force that the whole thing rips open.

He lets out a string of curses as the contents spill out onto the floor. He gathers them haphazardly into his arms, and Ochaco drops down to her knees by his side to help him.

"Are you angry?" she asks as she piles clothes on his lap.

"No."

"Then why are you acting like that?"

"I said I'm not angry," Katsuki snaps. "They're your parents. Do what you want."

Of course, Ochaco being Ochaco, she refuses to be cowed by his tantrum.

"Katsuki, listen to me," she insists. "Look at me."

When he doesn't, she reaches out with both hands to grab him by the shoulders and force him to meet her eyes. He scowls at her, but she stays firm.

"I told my parents I won't let them meet you until they stop being judgy," she clarifies. "They should meet you with an open mind or not at all. That's what I told them."

Ochaco slides her hands from Katsuki's shoulders down his arms to his own hands, but they're full with her clothes, so she hooks their fingers together instead.

"Of course I'm not ashamed of you. I love you!"

She says it with a passion that leaves no doubt of her sincerity. She leans forward to press a kiss on his lips, and as she pulls away she gives his fingers a squeeze.

"So don't be mad, okay?" she prods.

"I said I wasn't mad," Katsuki grumbles, but there's no hostility in his tone this time, and just a hint of red dusts his complexion. She beams at him, and it's so lovely he can't bite back a small one of his own.

"There, that's better!" Ochaco says teasingly. "Well then, let's get to putting these away…" Her eyes travel down to the pile of clothes sitting on his lap and the permanent pink in her cheeks deepens several hues.

Katsuki follows her gaze and his own face erupts in embarrassment. Between his sour mood and his haste to pick the clothes up from the floor, he hadn't noticed that all of it is underwear.

He's cradling a bunch of Ochaco's underwear, including some really cutesy ones that he half-wishes he hadn't seen. His imagination is not going to be kind.

"G-g-g-g-g-g-g-give them here!" Ochaco stutters, all flustered. "I-I-I-'ll sort them out by myself!"

Katsuki nods and hastily pushes the entire pile into her arms. His face is all warm, his pulse is racing, and he berates himself for it.

It's just underwear. It's not a big deal. He should be cool, or act the part at least, but try as he might, he suddenly doesn't know where to look and his mouth has gone dry.

He and Ochaco have been dating for almost a year, but they haven't actually… he hasn't even seen… He feels the beginnings of small explosions on his palms as they become excessively sweaty, and he rubs them vigorously against his pants.

"I'll put these away," Ochaco says meekly. "So um, just go rest. You've done enough for today, thank you."

Katsuki just nods again like a mute asshole and picks himself up from the floor as Ochaco begins to hastily fold her pile of underwear and shove them one by one into a drawer in the closet.

He goes over to her bed only a few steps away and plops heavily down on his back onto the uncovered mattress. Its springs give a grating squeak, but he ignores the sound and stares at the bare ceiling.

He and Ochaco have been dating for close to a year, but they have yet to sleep together.

It sure as hell isn't from lack of desire. There's loads of it from his end, definitely, and he can't see why it wouldn't be the same on hers.

But be that as it may, he's obviously being expected to make the first move, as Ochaco would suffer an aneurism otherwise, and this is where Katsuki is met with a bit of a complication.

He has never been in any kind of relationship before Ochaco, and though he'd like to believe that he's suave by instinct, in reality he's not. He's really not. Katsuki doesn't have the slightest clue how he's supposed to get to that point.

If only a good opportunity would come his way…

He lets out a loud, irate sigh.

"Tired?" Ochaco asks as she stands up and brushes off her knees, apparently done putting away her underwear. She walks over to the bed and drops down onto the mattress beside him. The springs make a racket, and Katsuki frowns.

"Where did you get this thing? It's fucking old," he complains.

"Of course it's old," she confirms. "I got it from a recycle shop, paid almost nothing for it!" She sounds proud.

"Yeah?" he drawls out. "That's not hard to believe."

Ochaco sticks her tongue out at him. "Whatever, Katsuki. As long as it serves its purpose, it's good enough for me."

To prove her point, she wiggles violently and moves her arms around on the surface of the bed to deliberately make the springs screech even louder.

"Stop that!" Katsuki snarls, annoyed with the grating sound, but Ochaco just laughs and doubles her efforts.

He clicks his tongue and rolls over to stop her by force. She squeals and tries to evade him, but in the limited space, there is nowhere to escape.

Katsuki ends up hovering above her, her wrists trapped above her head in one of his hands. She falls quiet when she registers the position they're in, blush blooming on her cheeks, her eyes wide and round as she stares up at him.

Katsuki feels his face heat up all over again and he retracts from her as though burned. He sits up with his back to Ochaco to hide his embarrassment.

Goddammit, he'll never get anywhere with her like this.

"…why don't you stay here tonight?"

Ochaco says it in a tiny voice. So tiny that Katsuki almost doesn't hear, but he does and his breath hitches. When he turns to look at her, she squeaks and covers her face, then scrunches her eyes shut for good measure.

He doesn't respond immediately, and she fills the silence with flustered rambling.

"I mean, you spent the whole day helping me move and it's getting late and your house is a bit far from here and you must be tired. I keep an extra futon for when my parents come over so you can sleep on that. Or I can sleep on that and you sleep on the bed. I can—"

"Okay, okay, shut it. I'll stay."

Katsuki tries to make it sound like it's a pain, but his chest is positively pounding and his head feels like it's going to explode. It's good that Ochaco's still hiding behind her hands. He's sure he looks fucking embarrassing.

This is it. This is what he has been waiting for.

He and Ochaco will be alone all night in the privacy of her apartment, and at her invitation, too. If this isn't the perfect opportunity for Katsuki to try something, then he doesn't know what is.

The time to act is tonight.

Katsuki stands up abruptly. A spring twangs as the mattress strains to smoothen out the shape his butt had left on the surface.

"Finish up here. I'm going out," he announces. "I have to get a few things if I'm staying the night."

There's a beat of silence so absolute that Katsuki hears Ochaco gulp.

"… o-okay," she squeaks from behind her hands, and he realizes she's read into what he said. His face burns.

"I meant like a toothbrush and a change of clothes!" he clarifies aggressively. "Don't act all weird!"

He quickly swipes his backpack from the floor and makes it out the front door in three large strides. It closes behind him with a slam louder than intended. Katsuki can swear smoke is coming out of his ears as he stomps down the outdoor stairwell of her apartment building.

Of course, it isn't just a toothbrush and a change of clothes he means to buy, but there's no reason to admit that now and get Ochaco even more worked up than she already is, is there?

* * *

 **A/N:**

The drafts for the first 2.5 chapters have been rotting away in my laptop for months now. I haven't had the time to flesh out the rest of the story because, oh my god, work has been crazy. I haven't been on here, not even to read, for so long now.

I need a breather from work though, so I'm going to try and encourage myself to finish this one at least. Updates may not be as consistent as with my previous work though.

Comments would be appreciated! :)


	2. It Might Be A Little Tight

Thank you so much to everyone so far who has given a review or has favorited/ followed this fic. I check my inbox every morning, and it makes my day to see all your reactions. I hope you will continue to enjoy this fic! :)

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Might Be A Little Tight**

The closest convenience store is a bit of a walk from Ochaco's new place. Katsuki stuffs his hands deep into his pockets to protect them from the chill as he stands at an intersection, waiting to cross.

He catches sight of his reflection on the angled traffic mirror by the side of the road. He's noticeably flushed. It's from the cold weather maybe, but also because he can't get his mind off the possibility that he and Ochaco might finally…

Blood rushes to his face all over again and he immediately claps a hand over his nose. It was probably his imagination, but he could swear he was going to have a nosebleed.

Damn, he'd better get a grip or he wouldn't even last until tonight.

The green man flashes from the traffic light across the street. Katsuki hunches his shoulders against the cold and continues on his way.

Katsuki is in luck. The convenience store is a big one, stocked with a comprehensive variety of goods.

He grabs a basket by the entrance and goes through the shelves filling it with the basic necessities for an impromptu overnight stay. All the while, he keeps an eye out for the most essential item he'll be buying for tonight.

He spots what he's looking for in the same aisle as hygiene products, on the shelf below the sanitary pads, and he suddenly regrets having charged into the store without doing some research first.

There's an entire row of condoms, each box labelled differently. Katsuki knew there would be different brands; that much is a given. He has also heard about different flavors, so that isn't a surprise, though he almost chokes on his own spit as he inevitably wonders which one Ochaco would enjoy best.

But apart from those, he hadn't known that there would be so much variety.

Katsuki grabs a box at random and frowns at the label. There's size written in millimeters on a corner of the box.

What? Was he supposed to have measured himself first? Like taken a tape measure and… seriously? Damn.

He returns the box and takes another one. The furrow in his brow deepens. 'Rose Pattern', the label says. What the actual fuck? He places it back on the shelf and runs a hand roughly through his wild mess of hair in frustration.

This is turning out to be more complicated than he thought. Maybe he should just get one and go? As long as it does its job, it doesn't really matter what kind of pattern it has, whatever all of that coded shit means. He just needs to make sure he and Ochaco are safe.

He takes a third box from the shelf, one that says 'Ultra Thin', and flips it over to read the back. This variety claims it would feel like wearing nothing, which Katsuki supposes would be good. Further, the brand boasts that it's the 'No. 1 in Japan'.

No. 1, huh? Katsuki likes the sound of that. Maybe he'll go with this one.

A female employee of the store goes to the shelf he's at to restock. Their eyes inadvertently meet, and she bows her head slightly and smiles at him in polite greeting.

Then her gaze drifts down to the box he's holding, and Katsuki's face burns up to the tips of his ears. He immediately dumps the condoms into his basket and leaves for the next aisle…

Only to backtrack a moment later to angrily swipe a tube of lube from the same shelf. Just in case. He's heard before that some girls get too tense and end up needing a little help.

He doesn't get to read the label in his haste, but whatever it turns out to be, it will have to do, because the store would burn to the ground if he had to resort to getting advice from a stranger.

Katsuki makes a beeline for the counter. He's tense as the cashier rings up the items in his basket one by one. He'll blast her face off, he swears he will, if this girl so much as smirks.

Thankfully, she makes no comment and keeps a pokerface, even as she takes his condoms and lube aside to wrap them in a sheet of recycled paper before placing them in the plastic bag with the rest of his purchases.

Katsuki is halfway back to Ochaco's apartment when he receives a text from her asking if he could grab dinner for the both of them. He decides to retrace his steps to the Benny's he remembers passing along the way.

It's dark out by the time Katsuki makes it back. Everything has been put away and the apartment is clean. Ochaco has covered her squeaky old mattress with a pastel pink sheet, and in what little open space left in the room, she has laid out a low table and floor cushions for dinner.

Ochaco has also just stepped out of a nice, warm bath. Her hair is damp and it fills Katsuki's nostrils with a fruity fragrance when she opens the door for him. Her cheeks are extra flushed, and her skin looks so creamy it's damning.

Katsuki forces himself to pry his eyes off of her. He instead busies himself with setting the table with their food.

Dinner is rice and fried chicken meat with a generous helping of cabbage salad on the side. Both he and Ochaco are ravenous from a long day of work, and half an hour later, they're arguing over who gets to eat the last piece of chicken.

In the middle of it, Katsuki's phone vibrates with a call from his mom. The old hag is probably going to ask where he is, but he's not planning to let her know. He tosses his phone into the depths of his backpack and ignores the sound of its relentless vibration until, finally, his mom gives up and his phone falls silent.

Then Ochaco's phone rings with a call from her dad, and unlike Katsuki, she decides to abandon their debate over the chicken to take it.

"Hi Daddy," she greets cheerfully. "What's up?"

"Me? I just had dinner. Yeah, I moved today. Uh huh, to that address I sent you."

Katsuki begins to pick up the last piece of chicken he had won by default, but his chopsticks slip when he hears his name pop up in Ochaco's conversation.

"Katsuki? Yeah, he helped me move."

"N-n-n-no, of course not," she stutters into the phone. "I sent him home. Uh-huh, yeah, a-a-a-a-about an hour ago."

Katsuki raises his eyebrows at her. She turns a deep pink in response.

"Okay, gotcha. Yup. I'll see you and Mommy soon. Good night!"

Ochaco draws a long breath of relief as she hangs up. Seeing the last piece of chicken still untouched, she quickly grabs it with her fingers and stuffs the whole thing into her mouth before Katsuki can react.

"Hey, that was mine!" Katsuki complains, but Ochaco just shrugs, her mouth full. He sends a grimace her way.

"Anyway," he asks, as casually as he can. "What was that about? What did your dad say about me?"

Ochaco swallows her food and takes a gulp of tea. Her cheeks are flushed as she answers. "Oh, that. He just wanted to know if you're still here."

"You said I wasn't."

"Well, yeah, I don't think my parents will like knowing that… I'm all alone with my b-b-boyfriend s-s-so late at night…"

She gets progressively redder as she stammers out a description of their situation. When she moves to grab her glass for another drink, she topples it accidentally in her fluster and spills tea all over the table.

Katsuki motions to help her clean up the mess, but she waves him off.

"I'll take care of this," she insists, still sounding a little ruffled. "Why don't you go ahead and have a bath? It's been a long day."

Katsuki decides to do as she says and he makes his way into the tiny bathroom. He takes his time showering off, and then he soaks in her little tub until he's certain his toes are all shrivelled up.

It doesn't usually take him this long to bathe, but tonight, he just can't bring himself to get out of the water just yet.

Sometime during the past half-hour, it had occurred to him that once he gets out of the bathroom, it woud be bedtime, and in this case, that would mean it's game time, and highly emasculating as it is to admit, he's getting nervous as fuck.

If he messes up… if he does something stupid and humiliates himself, or worse, ruin the experience for both of them…

There's gentle knocking on the bathroom door, then comes Ochaco's apprehensive voice. "Katsuki? You've been in there a long time. Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he manages to croak. "I'll be out soon." Or so he says, but he takes another half-hour to towel off and get dressed.

When he exits the bathroom, Ochaco has put away the low table and cushions, and where they had been on the floor, she's now unrolling a futon.

"You can have the bed, Katsuki. I'll sleep on this," she says in a small, squeaky voice, careful to have her eyes anywhere but on him.

Katsuki breathes in deeply, exhales through his mouth, and then, "Can't we share the bed?"

Ochaco sounds even squeakier when she responds. "I-i-it might be a little tight."

"I don't mind," Katsuki says plainly. "Let's just share."

The room has become so silent that he can hear the sound of the water he has left draining from the tub.

"Okay, then. We'll share." Ochaco's voice is a hair of a pitch away from being in the range only dolphins could hear.

She rolls the spare futon back into itself and shoves it into the bottom layer of her closet. Then, careful not to meet his eyes, she walks over to the bed and crawls under the covers to the side against the wall.

Katsuki stares at the space she has left for him, and his mouth goes dry.

This is it. This is really it.

He takes a final deep breath to compose himself, pulls at the light switch a few times until the room is almost pitch black, and gets into bed beside Ochaco. She's lying on her side with her back to him, so still and quiet he wonders if she's even breathing.

"Ochaco?" He puts a hand on her shoulder. Her breath hitches and she stiffens at his touch. He withdraws his hand, startled by this reaction.

"What?" Katsuki asks. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," she mumbles.

When she doesn't say anything more, he scoots a little closer to her. His heart is pounding in his chest, but in the darkness, it's easier to be bold. He turns on his side and wraps an arm around her waist, pulling her gently to himself.

"Mind if I do this?" he asks close to her ear.

He feels her shake her head, but her back remains rigid as a board, almost like she doesn't want to ler her body fold into the shape of his.

Ochaco is warm against him, and Katsuki thinks it would be nice to fall asleep like this. But he's wide awake, adrenaline pumping through his veins. Now is the time to act, except she's acting so weird.

Maybe she doesn't want this after all?

Katsuki removes his hand from her waist, bringing it up to the back of her neck to brush her hair aside, then he presses a kiss on the exposed skin of her nape.

Ochaco barely manages to stifle a whimper, and that's answer enough in itself for Katsuki. She's not ready. It's not going to happen. He chastises himself for reading too much into her invitation and getting himself worked up over nothing.

Anyway, just sleeping together like this isn't bad either. It's still a milestone. They've never had a chance to do anything like this at the dorms. This is fine.

Or so he'd like to convince himself, but he still can't help feeling more than a bit disappointed.

"Good night, Ochaco," he whispers against her hair in defeat, and deflated, he rolls over to his side so that he also has his back to her.

For a long, endless moment, neither of them moves.

Then he changes his mind. He'll make one last attempt. Just one last.

He turns back to her, and at the exact same moment, she mirrors his actions. The mattress protests in earnest, breaking the awkward silence that had built up between them.

As they come face to face with each other, Katsuki sees even in the dark that, contrary to what he had assumed from her reactions, Ochaco looks just as flushed and ready and wanting as he feels.

"Katsuki," she mumbles timidly. "I asked you to stay because I want to… um, I don't know how to do this, and I've never… I mean, I'm just so nervous… but I really want…"

Ochaco rambles on, sounding painfully embrarrassed, skirting around the topic, unable to bring herself to say it out loud. But Katsuki is happy to assist. Without waiting for her to finish, he closes the distance between them and steals her next breath in a searing kiss.

* * *

 **A/N:**

I'm so sorry to disappoint, but I'm not actually going to write smut, haha. I don't have the skills or the confidence. Also, I've decided to keep this fic rated T. I'll leave the details of Ochaco and Katsuki's night to your imagination, but there is more to come for this fic. I hope you can continue to look forward to the subsequent chapters.

In any case, I have a few notes:

1\. The brand of condoms that Katsuki ends up getting is Okamoto. It does claim to be the No.1 in Japan, and it does have an Ultra Thin variety. As far as I've read, condoms are pretty accessible in Japan, with it being the most popular form of contraceptive by a mile. Plan B pills cost 20,000 yen apiece and require prescription, so I'm not surprised that people prefer condoms.

2\. In Japan, when you buy objects that may be embarrassing, the cashier wraps them in an opaque paper bag before putting them in wth the rest of your purchases. In some stores, even sanitary pads or tampons get the same treatment.

3\. Girls, bleeding or intense pain on your first time is NOT a requirement and the myth that it has to happen to everyone should be obliterated. If it's painful, your body is not ready. Consider using lube.

4\. Benny's is a parody of Denny's, a popular chain of family restaurants in Japan and elsewhere. Katsuki and Ochaco's dinner is karaage, which is bite-sized fried chicken meat (without bones).


	3. The Jealous Gene

**A/N:**

Sorry it took so long; work has kept me busy! Thanks for the favorites, the follows, and especially the reviews! Do keep them coming, they are my fuel! :)

* * *

 **Chapter 3: The Jealous Gene**

Katsuki's face is pressed into Ochaco's hair, their limbs tangled together in the narrow space of her bed, when the doorbell rings.

He's a deep enough sleeper that he doesn't actually hear it, but she does. She stirs from under the arm he has draped around her middle, and the movement wakes him up as well.

"Someone's at the door," she mumbles sleepily.

Katsuki squints against the patch of sunlight streaming from the only window in her apartment. From the birds chirping outside and the relative chill, he can tell that it's very early in the morning.

"What kind of asshole visits at this hour?" he asks grumpily, bringing an arm up to shield his eyes from the light.

"Dunno, maybe a neighbor wanting to say hi?" Ochaco replies through a yawn.

She rolls over so she can nuzzle into Katsuki's chest, and the thin cloth of his convenience store shirt muffles the rest of her words. "I haven't given any of my friends my new address yet."

"Ignore it," Katsuki instructs. "They'll go away if nobody answers the door."

His arm returns to her waist and his hold tightens, pressing their bodies even closer together. His eyes are closed and he's drifting back off to sleep when Ochaco suddenly gasps and practically throws him off of her.

"Oh shit, I did give someone my new address!"

It's rare enough to hear Ochaco curse that it wakes Katsuki up effectively. And even if that hadn't, her next words would have done the trick.

"My parents! I told my parents!"

Katsuki immediately sits up, and Ochaco's stupid old mattress makes a racket. The doorbell rings again, somehow sounding louder and more ominous this time. They look at each other in horror.

"Hide!" Ochaco hisses as she jumps off from the bed. The loose shirt she's wearing barely covers her underwear and she scrambles to find her discarded shorts on the floor.

Peering into a mirror resting against her closet door, she frets at the sight of the marks he had left on her skin the previous night.

"Katsuki, my neck! How am I going to hide these things on my neck?"

Katsuki grabs his own clothes and his backpack from the floor and bolts into the bathroom. Before he closes the door, he takes a towel from the rack inside and throws it at Ochaco.

"Hang that around your neck," he instructs.

"But that doesn't make any–" she begins to argue, but the doorbell rings a third time, and they both jump slightly.

"C-coming!" Ochaco calls out, the pitch of her voice becoming unnaturally high in her panic. "Wait just a minute!"

Katsuki retreats as far back into the small bathroom as possible and almost trips over the plastic stool sitting in front of the shower. Cursing silently, he picks it up and places it upside down on the covered half of the bathtub.

He sinks to the floor where the stool had been and hugs his backpack to his pounding chest.

Outside, there is wild shuffling as Ochaco goes about the apartment trying to erase any evidence of his presence and their activities the previous night.

Then, finally, the lock on the front door clicks open, and Katsuki hears the voices of Ochaco's parents for the first time.

"Surprise!" They exclaim ecstatically.

"Bet you didn't see this coming, Ochaco!" Her dad adds, and Katsuki finds himself unable to think of a bigger understatement.

"Y-yeah, you bet I didn't," Ochaco answers a little weakly. "You should have told me you were coming… I could have picked you up from the terminal."

"But that would have ruined the surprise," her mom points out.

"We thought you might get lonely living alone again after a long time at the dorms," her dad explains. "So we hopped on the overnight bus right away to give you some company."

"That's… really sweet, Mommy, Daddy," Ochaco moons. Katsuki can tell that she's sincerely touched, and he supposes she has every reason to be. But damn, this is some shit timing!

The bathroom has no windows, and the only one in the entire apartment is too small for Katsuki to fit into. Unless he blasts a hole in the wall, the only exit would be the front door, where Ochaco's parents are now standing.

Ochaco has to find a way to lead them away for a bit so Katsuki can escape, or else he'll be stuck inside her bathroom indefinitely.

"Um, listen, you took such a looooong trip to get here," Ochaco begins nervously. "I'm sure you're hungry, so why don't we go out for breakfast? I-i-it'll be my treat!"

"There's no need for that, Ochaco," her dad replies. "We've planned ahead and brought food! Let's all eat here."

Shit, there goes that plan. Katsuki grits his teeth.

"Aren't you going to invite us in?" Ochaco's mom asks. "You've been blocking the door all this time."

"I bet it's because she hasn't fixed up in there," her dad teases. "Don't worry, Ochaco, we're used to the mess, so no need to be embarrassed."

Her parents both chuckle lightly, and Ochaco joins in, though hers come out sounding more nervous than anything.

"Th-then please make yourself at home," she invites apprehensively, and the hinges of the front door whine slightly as it opens wider.

Katsuki can make out the sound of house slippers gently slapping the floor as Ochaco brings them out of the shoe cabinet at the entryway for her parents to change into.

It's then that he remembers something that makes his heart stop, and right that exact moment, Ochaco's dad makes the same discovery.

"Whose shoes are these, Ochaco? They're too big to be yours."

Katsuki had left his motherfucking shoes inside the shoe cabinet, and now it's on full display for Ochaco's parents to see!

"Oh, th-those shoes," Ochaco falters, her voice literally trembling. She has never liked lying nor has she ever been good at it.

His hands roughly grab patches of his hair in frustration, and all the while he bites the insides of his cheeks to stop himself from cursing out loud.

They're done for. They're fucking done for.

"K-K-Katsuki m-must have f-forgotten to ch-change out of his s-slippers when he left," Ochaco stutters.

"But it's cold out," her mom points out. "Wouldn't he have noticed he's still in slippers the moment he stepped outside?"

"H-he, uh, he's got really thick skin on his feet," Ochaco blurts out breathlessly. "C-calluses and such… he's got a reaaaaally bad case of it."

Katsuki slaps a palm soundlessly against his face. Ochaco, what the fuck.

"Is… is that so?" Ochaco's mom asks, sounding rather put-off. "That sounds unhealthy. Has he had that looked at?"

"It sounds disgusting," Ochaco's dad states plainly, and inside the bathroom, Katsuki bristles, offended even though he knows perfectly well that the calluses on his feet are entirely fictional.

"He'll lose fangirls if they find out he's got disgusting feet," Ochaco's dad continues. "But that wouldn't be so bad, would it? Frankly, I think he's got too many. I'm surprised you're okay with that, Ochaco."

"Well, Daddy, it's not like there's anything I can do about that," Ochaco replies, straight and honest for the first time the entire morning. "Katsuki's popular for a reason."

"Oh, speaking of that, we saw him on the news the other day," her mom mentions. "Something about a stalker? What was that again, dear?"

"He beat a villain who was sending threatening messages to some idol," her dad recalls.

"Oh, yeah, that one! The idol's manager hired Katsuki's team to catch the stalker," Ochaco gushes excitedly. "It was team effort, of course, but Katsuki did most of the work. He's amazing!"

Inside the bathroom, a grin finds its way onto Katsuki's mouth at Ochaco's eagerness to brag about what an incredible hero she thinks he is. His face grows a little warm, and he unconsciously hugs the backpack on his lap a little tighter.

Ochaco's dad doesn't seem to share her enthusiasm though. "That idol seems pretty infatuated with your boyfriend, blushing a ton in that interview where she thanks him," he deadpans.

Katsuki frowns. Throwing shade first at his fans and now his client? Wow, it's becoming obvious where Ochaco gets the jealous gene.

"Really? I didn't see that interview," Ochaco says, sounding a little alarmed. "B-but anyway they're not working together anymore, so it's no big deal!"

She doesn't sound thoroughly convinced, however, and Katsuki's willing to bet that this is not going to be the end of it.

He grimaces in impatience. Ochaco tends to overthink these things, and it can easily be as annoying as it is ridiculous. It's not like he has given her any reason to think his eyes stray.

For the moment though, it's fine. At least the issue of his shoes and his supposedly disgusting feet seem to have been forgotten.

"Ochaco, why do you have your towel like that around your neck? Are you cold?" Her mom asks curiously, and Katsuki feels knots of tension return to his stomach.

"N-no, I, uh, I was about to h-hop into the shower when you rang the bell," Ochaco wheezes. "Th-that's why it took me so long to open the door!"

"This early?" Her mom sounds amazed. "You didn't use to wake up until close to noon. I'm glad that things have changed!"

"W-well, you know what they say… early to bed, early to rise makes a hero healthy, wealthy, and wise!" Ochaco recites with an awkward chuckle.

Inside the bathroom, Katsuki muffles his own snorts of laughter against his backpack. What the hell, Ochaco!

"I can't agree more!" her mom approves. "Why don't you shower now then? While I set the table for breakfast."

Shit. Wait. No. If the bathroom door is opened, Katsuki will be revealed. The space is too small for him to hide any further. It's a dead end.

"No, it's fine!" Ochaco says hurriedly. "Let's eat first!"

"You say that but you're not putting down the towel. We can wait, you know."

"I just really like this towel!" Ochaco insists. "I can shower after breakfast."

Katsuki hopes she has a back-up plan because he's not going to miraculously become invisible after breakfast.

"All right then, if you're sure," her mom finally concedes. "Can you show me where you keep the table and cushions?"

For a while, Katsuki hears nothing but sounds of the family preparing to eat.

A closet door slides open and shut as the low table is brought back out and set up. Plates slap lightly against its wooden surface, and ceramic cups clink as tea is served. Plastic bags rustle as Ochaco's parents bring out the meal they've brought with them.

When conversation resumes, Katsuki is both intrigued and alarmed to find himself the topic once again.

"Going back to your boyfriend," Ochaco's dad begins flatly. "When are you going to introduce him formally to us?"

Ochaco takes a while to answer, and when she does, it's also a question. "Are you really ready to meet him, Daddy?"

"I've always been," her dad replies promptly.

"Reaaaally? Why do I get a feeling that you're still going to be judgy?" Ochaco asks suspiciously. "You too, Mommy."

"Hey, we're not unfair, Ochaco," her dad defends. "We see his good points. We acknowledge that he's a talented hero, and that he's attractive, I guess, if that kind of wildness is what young people like these days."

"But of course we can also see the bad," her mom continues. "There's his temper, for one. Is he really that… angry… all the time?"

"Mommy…" Ochaco sighs.

"We're just telling you what we see on TV," her dad points out. "When Bakugo's on the news, half of it is just bleeping! Does he talk to you with that mouth?"

"And the violence…" her mom adds, sounding concerned. "We know you're a strong girl and you can hold your own, but are you absolutely sure he treats you okay?"

"Yes, I'm sure," Ochaco asserts, obviously peeved. "Katsuki's not a bad person. The media just likes to present him that way!"

"You're saying it's all a lie, is that right?" her dad asks, sounding highly doubtful. "Bakugo doesn't have a temper or a foul mouth? He hasn't got aggressive tendencies?"

"Well, he does, but what I meant was…" Ochaco begins to defend, but her dad cuts her off, having already heard enough.

"Are you sure about that guy Ochaco?" he finally asks bluntly. "Why don't you try to find yourself someone nicer?"

Inside the bathroom, Katsuki feels his heart plummet to the pit of his stomach. Just a bit apprehensive, his ass. Ochaco lied, and this proves it. Her parents are not apprehensive; they downright dislike him!

And as though to add insult to injury, her mom pipes up with a recommendation that sets Katsuki's temper ablaze.

"Midoriya-kun seems nice," she says. "And you two are such good friends, Ochaco. Can't it be something more?"

That dipshit Deku!

Katsuki grinds his teeth in silent anger. Fucking nerd was All Might's favorite, and now he turns out to be Ochaco's parents' idea of a perfect boyfriend for her? Fuck that!

Damn asshole must have sucked up to them somehow. Katsuki swears he's going to find out what that fuckstick did to be showered with this much approval and he's going make him pay for it.

Katsuki is lost in his thoughts of revenge when it happens.

From somewhere within the backpack he's cradling on his lap, his phone starts to vibrate violently with an incoming call, and the acoustics in the tiny bathroom are just perfect to magnify the sound.

Katsuki's breath leaves him. He clamors to find the phone within the black hole of his bag, struggling to bite back the top-tier cursing that has settled on the tip of his tongue.

Outside the bathroom, the conversation comes to a sudden stop.

"Do you hear that?" Ochaco's mom asks, sounding puzzled.

"No," Ochaco answers too quickly.

"I hear it too," her dad asserts. "It's coming from the bathroom. I should go check."

"Wait, no, I'll go check!" Ochaco practically shrieks, overcome with panic.

"Why?" her dad asks suspiciously. "What's in there you don't want me to see?"

Katsuki finds his phone then. 'Old Hag' flashes on the screen as it continues to vibrate in his hand. Fuck, maybe he shouldn't have ignored her calls the previous night after all.

He slides his finger against the decline icon on screen and mashes the power button before another call can come in, but it's too late. The knob on the bathroom door is already twisting.

Shit. Fuck! They're done for! Katsuki waits with bated breath and clutches his backpack in a death grip, his eyes glued to the knob as it slowly turns…

"It's locked," Ochaco's dad announces.

"I… I… must have locked it accidentally," Ochaco rasps. She sounds almost breathless. "I'll get the key later from my landlord, so let's… leave it alone for now?"

Her words are followed by a beat of silence, during which Katsuki hears nothing but the pounding of his own pulse in his ears. Then, finally, the knob twists back to its original position, signifying that Ochaco's dad had let go from the other side.

Katsuki releases the breath he's been holding. His heart is thrashing wildly against his ribcage, and he feels like he's about to throw up from the tension.

Holy shit, that was close. That was too fucking close.

All his strength leaves him in his relief. He lets his shoulders sag and he rests his head on his backpack, suddenly exhausted.

He's like this, vulnerable and completely unprepared, when the bathroom door is forced open. It folds in on itself as though crushed under a huge weight, the knob falling to the floor with an earsplitting thud.

Katsuki's head snaps back up in shock, and he finds himself staring through the empty doorframe right at Ochaco's dad.

* * *

 **A/N:**

A few notes on Japanese houses:

1) As everyone who watches anime would know, there is an entryway where people change out of their outdoor shoes into house slippers. Some houses have a cabinet right at the entry way where shoes and slippers are kept.

2) The toilet is usually in a separate room from the bathroom. The toilet is viewed as a dirty place, and there's even a special pair of slippers you're supposed to use when you enter the toilet. Meanwhile, the bathroom is viewed as a place of cleanliness. So the two areas are kept separate traditionally. Some newer apartments have broken off from this tradition due to lack of space, but in this fic, I imagine Ochaco's apartment to be an older one since it wouldn't be so cheap otherwise, so her toilet and bathroom are still separate. Katsuki was hiding in the bathroom, so even if anybody had to pee, he wouldn't have been discovered.


	4. His Foul Influence

Thanks for your readership, guys! I really appreciate it! I hope you all continue to enjoy this story! :)

* * *

 **Chapter 4: His Foul Influence**

If it had gone according to Katsuki's plan, he would have met Ochaco's parents for the first time at a nice restaurant that he had chosen, to demonstrate that he can, in fact, be refined if he wanted to be.

He would have dressed like the proper young man they would expect of their daughter's boyfriend, in pants that actually sat on his waist, a smart shirt, maybe even a nice designer jacket if he really wanted to impress.

Then he would have rehearsed his first lines to them. It would have been something polite and dignified.

What happens though is far, far removed from this fantasy.

They meet for the first time in Ochaco's tiny bathroom as he hides like a fugitive, and he isn't even dressed. He's in his boxers and the flimsy roundneck he had bought from the convenience store the previous night.

And the first thing he says? "Fuck".

He swears in front of Ochaco's dad, who stands bewildered in the doorway at the sight of Katsuki sitting on his daughter's bathroom floor half-naked.

Katsuki quickly follows up with "good morning", but the damage has been done.

Apparently, Ochaco's dad has a gravity Quirk, too, except it's the complete opposite of hers. Whereas she can remove the gravity of anything she touches, her dad can add gravity, which, in extreme cases, can cause an object to collapse upon itself.

Upon finding the bathroom door locked, he had used his Quirk to force his way inside, and there he found Katsuki. Ochaco's mom appears over his shoulder a moment later, giving out a very scandalized gasp at the scene before her.

Shit hits the fan then. Ochaco runs to Katsuki's side and tries to explain, but in her haste, the towel hanging around her neck slips off, exposing the love bites trailing down her skin all the way to where her shirt hid the rest from view.

All the blood drains from her dad's face and he makes a strangled sound in his throat. Her mom claps both hands to her mouth, and Katsuki's spirit leaves his body. He's fucking done for.

Now here they are, the four of them seated all formal and proper on cushions around Ochaco's low table, the silence thick and charged.

Ochaco has her head bowed so low her forehead's almost touching the surface of the table. Meanwhile, Katsuki is staring ahead with dead eyes. His pants are back on but he still feels so exposed he might as well be naked.

Ochaco's dad takes a deep, audible breath through his mouth. Katsuki feels static energy jump across his skin as his spirit is forcibly pulled back into his body.

"So, Bakugo," her dad begins heavily. "We've been wanting to meet you, though frankly we didn't expect that it would go like this."

Katsuki doesn't really know what the proper response would be to that. 'Me neither' is what he would have wanted to say, but it seems a bit too offhand for the situation.

He opts to stay quiet instead.

"Well, anyway, I'm guessing you haven't had breakfast," her dad continues. He gestures to the ham sandwiches spread out on the table. "Help yourself."

To be honest, Katsuki feels more like throwing up than eating, but he wills his hand to reach for a sandwich as instructed, his movement stiff and unnatural.

"Thank you for the food," he mutters.

Ochaco's dad nods thoughtfully as Katsuki takes a bite.

"How's it taste? Good?" he asks, and Katsuki responds with a nod even though the inside of his mouth has dried up and everything tastes like paper.

"That's great. Eat up," Ochaco's dad urges in a friendly manner that Katsuki finds suspicious, and sure enough, he follows up with something more menacing.

"You'll have to excuse us if there isn't enough though. I mean, we did consider only three people sharing when we bought this."

His tone is placid enough, but Ochaco's shoulders tighten and Katsuki freezes mid-bite.

"We couldn't have known you would be joining us today," Ochaco's dad continues. "After all, Ochaco very clearly told me last night that she'd sent you home. Isn't that right, Ochaco?"

He turns to Ochaco, who appears to be giving it all her effort to shrink from view. When she doesn't answer, her dad moves on to his next question, and this time it's directed to Katsuki.

"Did you sleep well?" he asks, and Katsuki only stares back wordlessly because he doesn't need prior relationship experience to figure out this one is a trap.

Ochaco and her mom both fidget uncomfortably, but they say nothing, leaving Katsuki no other choice but to respond.

"'twas all right," he mutters cautiously, hoping that it's safe enough an answer not to rile up Ochaco's dad any further.

It's a futile attempt though, because Ochaco's dad only raises both eyebrows at him. "Slept better elsewhere?" he asks coolly, and the accusation is clear. He's insinuating that Katsuki sleeps around.

Katsuki feels his hackles rise and his face flush in anger. 'Fuck you,' is on the tip of his tongue, but he bites it back and clenches his jaw tightly to keep his mouth shut.

His palms are close to burning holes in his pants, his calves are beginning to get pins and needles from being sat on for a far longer period than he's ever had to endure in his life, and he's immensely on edge.

But he has to remain calm, even if only on the surface, because even though Katsuki wouldn't usually give two shits about being rude, this is Ochaco's father, and family is important to Ochaco.

Ochaco's mom looks uncomfortable at the turn her husband's interrogation is taking. Clearing her throat slightly, she tries to change the subject.

She looks more welcoming than her husband, but Katsuki remains wary. He hasn't forgotten, nor forgiven, that this woman had suggested Ochaco date Deku instead.

"Bakugo-kun," she addresses him. "Why don't you tell us about yourself? We see you on the news a lot, but since you're dating our daughter, we would like to get to know you better."

Katsuki's forehead creases as he considers how to respond. He isn't really what anyone would name a champ at small talk. But Ochaco's mom seems keen to take the conversation another direction, and Katsuki is all for that, so he tries his best and gives her the most honest answer he can think of.

"I plan to become the #1 hero."

He says it seriously, his lower lip jutting out in defiance out of habit even though none of his rivals are here to challenge him.

His words are met by silence, until Ochaco suddenly lets out a small snort of laughter from beside him. The sound takes everyone by surprise, and it lifts the tension in the room slightly.

"What?" Katsuki asks impatiently, annoyed that his heartfelt answer had gotten such a reaction from her. "What's so funny?"

"Mommy meant something personal, Katsuki, like your childhood or your hobbies," Ochaco points out, giggling. "Everyone knows about you wanting to become the top hero."

He frowns. "Huh? I talked about my ambition. How's that not personal?"

This time, even Ochaco's mom smiles in amusement, and it strikes Katsuki that she resembles her daughter an awful lot when she doesn't look distressed.

"Well, you have a point there, Bakugo-kun," Ochaco's mom concedes, and she sounds sincerely friendly this time. "It's a nice goal. Have you always wanted to be a hero?"

"Yeah," Katsuki replies promptly, finding it easier to talk now that the topic is safe and familiar. "It's been my dream since I was a kid."

"Ochaco has wanted to be a hero since she was a little girl, too," her mom shares with a wistful smile. "To help our family, you see. We tell her she doesn't need to, but she's a sweet child."

Ochaco's dad cuts in before Katsuki can respond, and any warmth that had wormed its way into the conversation immediately dies.

"Ochaco was such a sweet child she never used to lie to us. But I see that's changed."

All traces of mirth disappear from Ochaco's face, and her expression crumples into one of such heartbreak that Katsuki instinctively reaches out to hold her hand. However, she pulls away from him as though electrocuted and folds her hands on her lap instead.

Katsuki stares at her, surprised, and, to be honest, a little offended. He understands that it probably isn't a good idea for them to be openly affectionate given the situation, but wow, that rejection hurt.

"Daddy, I'm so sorry," Ochaco murmurs meekly, her head lowered to show humility. "I didn't mean to hurt you. It's just that I knew you and Mommy wouldn't be comfortable knowing Katsuki was going to sleep over."

"If you knew that, Ochaco, then why didn't you just send him home?" Her mom asks, kind but perplexed.

Ochaco doesn't answer at once. She squirms, clearly uncomfortable, and then in a small, small voice that Katsuki's ears strain to hear, she admits the truth, plain and simple.

"Because I really, really… wanted him to stay… I wanted to be with him."

The permanent blush in her cheeks spreads and deepens, and she brings her hands up to hide her face behind them. "I'm so sorry," she squeals, embarrassed.

Katsuki feels his own face grow hot, and he tears his gaze away from Ochaco in embarrassment. Catching sight of her mom, he sees that she, too, has become somewhat flushed at the implication of Ochaco's confession.

Her dad, though, doesn't seem to share their sentiments. If anything, the expression on his face has turned even more sour. A sense of foreboding falls over Katsuki when their eyes meet.

"You sure, Ochaco?" her dad asks coldly, not breaking eye contact with Katsuki. "Did you really want that or did someone just make you think you did?"

That fucking does it.

Katsuki slams a palm against the surface of the table, sending their cups of tea clattering dangerously. It startles everyone and effectively puts the focus on Katsuki, whose shoulders are shaking in his rage.

It has taken all his self-control to keep the head on his shoulders throughout this painful encounter, out of consideration for Ochaco. But he has had enough. Her dad has said enough.

Ochaco grabs his sleeve in panic, but there's no holding him back anymore. He shrugs off her hand roughly, which he knows doesn't escape her parents' attention, but fuck if he cares right now.

"You don't like me, I get it," Katsuki snarls. "You'd rather have some loser like Deku, fine, you've got shit taste, but suit yourself."

Smoke fizzles from underneath his hand as the wood of the table soaks in his explosive sweat.

"But if you're going to accuse me of shit I haven't done, don't expect me to take it sitting down. Let's make one thing clear. I haven't done anything to Ochaco she doesn't want. Whatever it is that Ochaco–"

Ochaco's dad slams his own palm down on the table, interrupting Katsuki.

"Stop it with that 'Ochaco', 'Ochaco'!" He snaps. "Don't be so familiar with my daughter when you haven't even gotten our permission to date her!"

Katsuki will not be outdone. He brings his other hand to join the one he already has on the table and brings both palms down on the surface with renewed vigor.

"She allows me to call her Ochaco, so I'll call her that as much as I fucking want!" Katsuki yells. "Ochaco, Ochaco, Ochaco, Ochaco! Suck on that!"

"You arrogant, insolent…" Ochaco's dad seethes. "You think I'm going to allow my daughter to keep dating you after this? No way. Absolutely no way! You and your foul influence stay away from her!"

"Oh yeah? Well, I don't know what kind of delusions you have about Ochaco, but she's a grown-ass woman now–"

"She's barely 18!"

"18 is an adult!" Katsuki asserts angrily. "Ochaco's an adult and she has every right to make decisions for herself. She doesn't need your permission to like me or date me or, hell, even sleep with me!"

Katsuki's chest heaves, and his entire body tingles with adrenaline. He closes his eyes and takes mouthful of breaths through his mouth in an effort to compose himself a little bit.

When he opens his eyes again, the room has fallen quiet. Ochaco's head is bowed in shame, and even her parents have averted their gaze, as though unable to bring themselves to look at him.

Katsuki suddenly feels self-conscious, the heat of his anger fading away to be replaced by cold, cold dread.

Shit. He's done it this time.

Katsuki turns to Ochaco, hoping she would do something to salvage the situation somehow, but when she speaks, her eyes don't meet his and all that comes out of her is, "Maybe you should go for now."

She says it meekly, almost sadly, and the brunt of his folly crashes down on Katsuki's shoulders all at once.

Shit, he messed up. He fucking messed up.

He opens his mouth, intending to apologize, but he feels too much in the spotlight with Ochaco's parents still in the same room, and he finds himself unable to go through with it.

"Yeah, sure," is what he says instead.

Awkward silence presses against him on all sides, suffocating him. He stands up from the floor cushion and makes his way to the shoe cabinet by the door, ignoring the numbness that has settled in his legs from kneeling for too long.

He slips his sneakers on without bothering to tuck his heels in or doing the laces. Before he heads out, he turns back one final time to the table he had left, but not even Ochaco looks up to bid him goodbye.

Katsuki closes the door behind him without another word.

He's a whole block away from Ochaco's apartment on his way to the train station when he stops in his tracks, runs both hands roughly through his hair, and grabs the bag he's wearing around his shoulders to angrily smash it against the ground in frustration.

Goddammit, it's all over.

* * *

 **A/N:**

If you've read my other work 'The Hard Road', you'd know I love researching stuff for my fics and then sharing my learnings in notes, haha. For this chapter, I'd like to explain some of the lines that may have been confusing:

1\. "Stop it with that 'Ochaco', 'Ochaco'! Don't be so familiar with my daughter when you haven't even gotten our permission to date her!"

\- Ochaco's dad is referring to Katsuki being rude and calling Ochaco by her first name without any honorifics. Even though they're dating and do call each other by their first names only, it would have been more polite and proper for Katsuki to still call Ochaco 'Ochaco-san' in front of her parents.

\- Asking for parents' permission to date is traditionally the proper way (it's the same in my culture too), and because Ochaco's parents come from the countryside, I would expect them to be a stickler for these kinds of tradition. This is why Ochaco's dad says this despite knowing that Ochaco and Katsuki are already dating. His permission is still a big deal, and it's offensive that Katsuki is being so familiar with his daughter without his permission.

2\. "...his calves are beginning to get pins and needles from being sat on for a far longer period than he's ever had to endure in his life..."

\- Katsuki was sitting in seiza, which is the traiditional, formal way of sitting. He was sitting like this because he was in front of Ochaco's parents and was trying to be all polite and proper. When in seiza, your knees are on the floor, and you're sitting on your calves. It's not very comfortable.

3\. "18 is an adult! She doesn't need your permission to like me or date me or, hell, even sleep with me!"

\- Well, actually, Katsuki's wrong here. Everyone under the age of 20 is defined as 'Juvenile' in the civil codes of Japan, and depending on circumstances, even two teenagers in a relationship with each other can be prosecuted for indecency charges, or for interference of parental rights (e.g., having sex or eloping without parents' permission).

4\. With all that said though, I'd have to admit that I'm not actually sure how culturally believable this whole exchange between Katsuki and Ochaco's dad is, but I've taken my creative liberties. Katsuki's canonically rude anyway, and I'm thinking even a kind, cheerful, conservative man like Ochaco's dad would be scandalized enough at catching his precious daughter's punk of a boyfriend half-naked in her bathroom that he would not be able to control his temper effectively no matter what the cultural norm is.


	5. Sagely Advice

Thanks for all the kudos and comments, everyone! I'm going to try and make weekly updates. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it up.

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Sagely Advice**

"KATSUKI!"

The moment his key turns in the front door, his mom's yelling begins. On a normal day, Katsuki would yell back, but today, he broodily drags himself into the house without a word.

The door leading to the living room slides open so violently it bangs against the wall, and from behind it appears Mitsuki, angrily brandishing a rolled-up newspaper.

"YOU HAVE SOME NERVE COMING HOME AFTER IGNORING ALL MY CALLS!"

She looms threateningly over Katsuki as he takes off his sneakers and fumbles through the shoe cabinet to get his house slippers.

"IF YOU THINK YOU CAN DISMISS ME JUST LIKE THAT BECAUSE YOU'RE MR. BIGSHOT NOW, THINK AGAIN! AS LONG AS YOU'RE UNDER MY ROOF…"

She comes to a puzzled halt when she realizes he's not fighting back. "Why aren't you saying anything?"

"I'm not in the mood," Katsuki grumbles. "Leave me alone."

He walks past her quietly to enter another door, which led to the kitchen. Mitsuki blanks out for a bit, unaccustomed to her son being so passive. When she regains her bearings, she quickly follows after him.

"Katsuki, what happened to you?"

He ignores her. She stands in the kitchen doorway with her arms crossed over her chest, watching as he pours himself a cold glass of water from the fridge and chugs it.

"You were with Ochaco-chan, weren't you? Did you have a fight?"

Katsuki wipes his mouth with the back of his hand and places the glass he used in the sink. When he tries to exit the kitchen, his mom deliberately blocks his way. He glares down at her, but she stands her ground.

"What happened, Katsuki?" She asks again. "Did you and Ochaco-chan have a fight? You didn't break up, did you?"

Katsuki feels his stomach flip as he's reminded of what had happened at Ochaco's place earlier. For fuck's sake, he's been trying not to think about it! Can't his stupid mother just leave him be for once?

"Katsuki, seriously, what–?"

"Shut up, Mom!" Katsuki snaps, too distressed to bother with insults. "I told you I'm not in the mood! I don't want to talk about it, all right?"

He shoves past her back into the hallway and makes his way up a flight of stairs to his room. When he reaches the landing, he catches sight of Mitsuki peeking up from the bottom step, but she doesn't make any more attempts to follow him.

Good. His morning's been fucked up enough without having to deal with another stupid interrogation.

Katsuki yanks the door to his room open and then slams it shut behind him. Without bothering to turn the lights on, he dumps his bag unceremoniously on the floor, kicks off his pants, and lets himself collapse heavily onto his bed.

He stares at the ceiling blankly, feeling totally drained. He'd had such a breakthrough with Ochaco the previous night, but only a few hours later and the entire future of their relationship has crumbled into uncertainty.

He grabs a pillow and presses it to his face, smothering a shout of frustration that he couldn't contain anymore. God fucking dammit! This isn't even remotely close to how he would have envisioned the morning after to be like.

He hadn't meant to explode like that in front of Ochaco's parents. He had honestly tried his best to sit still and behave. But how could he, with that kind of provocation from Ochaco's dad? It was almost like he was deliberately riling Katsuki up.

And who knows, maybe he was. Maybe his biased ass was trying to prove a point. That Katsuki really is the aggressive, foul-mannered, angry punk undeserving of Ochaco that he believes him to be.

Katsuki throws the pillow off his face. It bounces against the wall and lands on the floor, but he doesn't move to pick it up as his insides freeze at a terrifying prospect.

In the heat of the moment, he had been unfazed and arrogantly claimed that Ochaco didn't need her dad's permission to date him. And technically, that's true; she's old enough to make her own decisions now.

Realistically, though, given how much of a devoted daughter Ochaco is...

Will she actually break up with Katsuki if her dad asked her?

This morning, she hadn't exactly sided with her dad, but she hadn't stood up for Katsuki either, had she? She'd even sent him away without saying goodbye or making eye contact. She hasn't sent him a single message since, too.

Shit. What if she does break up with him?

Katsuki had disrespected her parents, the two people she loved the most. He had yelled at her dad and made a scene. She must be plenty mad at him right now.

But hold on a moment, if Ochaco's mad at him for disrespecting her dad, she should be mad at her dad too for being a fucking dick!

After all, her dad had started it, throwing accusations around that put the nature of Katsuki's character into question. That was more than just being rude, that was slander! It's a much more serious offense, as far as Katsuki is concerned.

In the first place, where did Ochaco's dad even get the idea that Katsuki's some sort of fuckboy?

Katsuki's arrogant, violent, and a punk; he's willing to own up to all of that, but one thing he's not is a player. On the contrary, he hasn't so much as looked at another girl since he started dating Ochaco. Or even before then, actually, since he'd only become interested in this relationship shit after he started liking her.

And if her parents only knew how painfully long it had taken Katsuki to confess his feelings for Ochaco, and how much longer still it had taken him to advance their relationship physically, they would see how ridiculous it is to assume that Katsuki's as smooth with girls as they seem to think he is.

Clicking his tongue in frustration, Katsuki blindly gropes for the pillow that had fallen to the floor. He pulls it back up onto the bed, and then kicks at the comforter he's lying on until he manages to displace it enough to burrow underneath.

Fuck this shit, it's not even noon and he's already had enough of this stupid day.

* * *

It's late in the afternoon when Katsuki wakes up again. He immediately checks his phone, but to his great agitation, the only message he has is from Kirishima and it's about something stupid.

It's been close to eight hours since Katsuki left her place and Ochaco still hasn't gotten in touch. He scowls. What, is she planning to just leave him guessing here? Doesn't she realize how fucking antsy this whole situation has made him?

Not willing to wait any longer, he decides to make the first move. He goes to his call history, picks out Ochaco's record from somewhere on the top of the list, and taps it.

Her line barely rings once before the call ends. Katsuki takes the phone from his ear and frowns at it. Did Ochaco just reject his call? What the hell?

He tries again, and then again, only to be met with the same result both times. He seethes, offended but also fucking terrified. Has his fear come to pass so soon? Is Ochaco planning to ghost him or what?

Well, he's not taking any of that shit. Gritting his teeth angrily, he types out a message so aggressively it would have cracked an inferior phone.

"If you're breaking up with me, do it properly! I refuse to be treated like this! If you want to break up, talk to me! We are not broken up until we talk first!"

He's feeling so emotional his chest is heaving. When the three dots indicating that Ochaco's typing a response pop up on screen, his heart leaps to his throat and he finds himself feeling queasy with anxiety, until finally, finally, her message appears.

"I can't take calls because I'm still with my parents," it says. "And I can't text if you keep calling before I have a chance to type anything."

Oh. Right. Katsuki's blood pressure goes down a smidge, and he feels just a bit warm in the face at having been so overdramatic.

"I'm not breaking up with you," Ochaco's message continues. "I promise to call you back later, so please just calm down for now, okay?"

After a second, she follows up with a kiss emoji, and Katsuki suddenly feels weak, his adrenaline rush over in the blink of an eye. He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly through his mouth in relief.

Fuck, that was such a fucking scare.

But she's not breaking up with him, that's great! She sent him a kiss too, so that means she's not mad, right? Sweet. Not all hope is lost. The world is fucking wonderful.

Katsuki replies to Ochaco's message with a simple "OK", then he leaps out of bed. He hasn't had a bite the whole day since that cursed sandwich at Ochaco's apartment, and now that he's not being bogged down by anxiety, he can feel his stomach protesting.

He pulls on some sweatpants and makes his way downstairs to the kitchen.

* * *

He's met with the sight of his parents talking in hushed tones at the dining table. When they see him, they abruptly stop, and Katsuki's face sours because it couldn't be any more obvious that they'd been discussing him.

Still, he's much too hungry to turn back, so he trudges on past them to the fridge and looks around inside for a snack.

"You can heat up the leftovers from lunch if you're hungry," his dad calls from the table. Katsuki responds with a dispassionate grunt and proceeds to do just that.

He's in the midst of stuffing a bowl of rice and extra spicy curry into the microwave when Masaru clears his throat and speaks again.

"Katsuki, how are things between you and Uraraka-san?"

Katsuki scowls. His stupid mom must have assumed shit from their encounter this morning and roped his dad into giving him some kind of talk.

"Everything's fine," he grumbles, closing the microwave door and punching in the number of minutes required to heat his food.

"Is that so?" Masaru asks, sounding dubious. "If there's anything at all, you can talk to me or your mom. We could give you advice."

"There's nothing," Katsuki answers monotonously, his eyes on his bowl of food as it spins inside the microwave.

"Come on, Katsuki, just tell us," Mitsuki quips impatiently. "You and Ochaco-chan broke up, didn't you?"

"Mitsuki..." Masaru warns.

"We didn't break up," Katsuki snaps, his back still to his parents. "You just assumed that because you're a busybody."

He acts annoyed, but deep inside, Katsuki can't help feeling relieved that he's finally able to say it with confidence.

"Well, how else was I supposed to interpret your moping?" Mitsuki argues defensively. "You looked like you were about to cry."

Katsuki rounds on his mom angrily. "Like hell I was! Stop making things up!"

"I'm not making things up," Mitsuki says. "We all know how terrible you are with emotions, so why don't you just tell us what happened and let us help you?"

"Nothing. Happened." Katsuki insists through grit teeth. "I was not moping. I was not about to cry. I was just tired. Now will you leave me alone?"

But Mitsuki's eyebrows rise all the way to her hairline and the beginnings of a smirk play on her mouth. "Tired? Why? What did you do all night with your girlfriend that got you so tired?"

Katsuki chokes on his own spit, not expecting this turn in the conversation.

"That's none of your business," he manages to growl, but he's burning such a bright red it loses all its bite.

Mitsuki's face lights up. She's smirking so mercilessly it makes Katsuki physically tremble in a mix of embarrassment and fury. Beside her, Masaru pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs.

"Mitsuki, don't," he warns his wife, but it goes ignored.

"Ohhhh, I see now why you were ignoring my calls," Mitsuki drawls, undeterred by Katsuki's obvious discomfort. "You didn't want Mommy to know? Well, there's no need to worry, Katsuki. I'm cool. I'm not going to get mad."

"Shut up," Katsuki mutters, still red in the face. "I don't care if you get mad."

Mitsuki throws her head back and laughs. Katsuki raises popping palms threateningly, while Masaru merely scratches the back of his neck, unable to do anything about the scene unfolding before him.

"So, what went wrong? Why did Ochaco-chan get mad at you?" Mitsuki asks candidly as she recovers from her fit of laughter. "Don't tell me you messed it up! A girl's first time is important, you know."

From the side, Masaru adds, "Not just a girl's." But, as usual, it goes ignored by both his wife and his son.

"I did not mess anything up!" Katsuki yells. "In the first place, Ochaco and I didn't fight, all right? How many times do I have to say it?"

"Then why were you so upset this morning?" Mitsuki insists. "And don't give me that crap about just being tired, Katsuki! I've raised you for almost 19 years, you can't fool me. You were upset about something and I'm sure it has to do with your girlfriend. So spill!"

"Mitsuki, don't force him," Masaru reminds gently. "He has a right to his privacy."

The microwave dings loudly, finally finished heating up Katsuki's food, but he remains rooted to where he's standing. The crinkle in his brow is deep as he looks intently at his parents.

It has just dawned on him that his parents… are parents.

If Katsuki wants to decode Ochaco's parents, then his own might just be the key. Well, his dad at least. The old hag is too unconventional to be of any help.

"Katsuki, your food's done," Masaru nudges.

"Yeah," Katsuki dismisses absently, but he doesn't move to get it. Grimacing at the thought of what he's about to do, he averts his gaze and opens his mouth.

"Ochaco's parents," he mutters reluctantly. "They made a surprise visit to her apartment this morning and caught me there."

From the peripheries of his vision, Katsuki sees his parents exchange a look.

"How did they react?" Masaru asks. "I don't imagine they were happy to know you spent the night."

"No shit," Katsuki says blandly, frowning at the empty space beside him. "Her dad and I got into an argument–"

"Okay, stop right there," Mitsuki interrupts. "You and her dad had an argument?"

"That's what I said, wasn't it?" Katsuki replies impatiently.

"By argument, you mean the kind you and I always have?" She clarifies.

"Yes?" He answers, annoyed. "What other kind is there?"

"You yelled at her dad?" This time, the question comes from Masaru. He sounds more than a little alarmed.

Katsuki wills himself to meet his dad's eyes. "I did, but that's because–"

"Oh no, you idiot," his mom scolds, groaning. Even his dad looks anxious, and it grates on Katsuki's nerves.

"I was provoked!" He defends aggressively. "Her dad was being an asshole the entire time! Was I supposed to just sit there and take it?"

"Yes, you moron," Mitsuki snaps. "You better be ready to get on your knees and apologize!"

"What?" Katsuki bristles. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"Okay, stop. Stop now, both of you," Masaru intervenes before the argument between his wife and son could escalate further.

"Katsuki," he says calmly. "I understand that you felt provoked. But those were your girlfriend's parents. You should have shown some respect."

"They should have shown me some respect!" Katsuki raged. "They were talking shit about me! Especially her dad! How come they get a pass and I don't?"

"I hear you, all right?" Masaru assures. "I'm sure you had good reason to get mad. I'm not invalidating your feelings. What I'm saying is that you should have had a better handle on your temper. There's always a better way to resolve things than flying on a rage."

"Exactly," Mitsuki agrees, nodding solemnly.

"I don't want to hear that from you of all people!" Katsuki shoots at his mom.

Mitsuki opens her mouth to retort, but Masaru places a hand on her arm to stop her. She purses her lips and scowls instead.

"Look, Katsuki," Masaru says. "I know you don't like it, and I know it's unfair, but you should apologize. Be humble and say you were wrong."

Katsuki doesn't say anything. Or rather, he can't say anything. He feels much too attacked to come up with a response.

He doesn't know what kind of advice he was expecting, but this is not it. What he would have wanted to know is how to make Ochaco's parents realize that they were wrong. Instead, his parents' sagely advice is for him to take the blame.

No way. No fucking way. Katsuki can't do it. He won't do it. Ochaco's dad had started the argument, so if there's anyone who should be offering an apology, it should be him.

Besides, what good would it even do Katsuki to humble himself before Ochaco's parents if the bottom line is that they simply don't like him?

"They just don't like me," Katsuki repeats out loud, and he scowls because the words come out quieter and sadder than he intended. "They're mad because I'm not the kind of guy they want for Ochaco. Nothing I do would change that."

He turns around stiffly without another word and goes to the microwave, violently yanking the door open to grab his food with his bare hands. The bowl is scorching, but his palms are used to heat because of his Quirk and he ignores it.

He's making his way out of the kitchen to eat in his room when his dad calls out to him again from the table. Despite himself, Katsuki halts in his steps for a moment to show that he's listening.

"You may not be the man they would have liked for their daughter," Masaru tells him gently. "But you can prove to them that you're even better. Do you think you can do that?"

Even without looking, Katsuki can tell that his dad is smiling. Katsuki doesn't know what the hell there is to smile about, given how shitty everything is, but somehow, it makes him feel a little more at ease. He gives his dad a small nod and exits the kitchen.

* * *

 **A/N:**

Just a small note on Ochaco:

Having myself been raised conservatively, picturing how Ochaco would feel about this whole situation came naturally to me. In fact, some of it is loosely based on personal experiences I had as a teenager. It was only after reactions on Chapter 4 came in that I realized not everyone would be able to sympathize with or even understand her frame of mind.

I'll explore a little more of Ochaco's feelings next chapter. Hopefully I'll be able to do some justice to the complexity of her situation, despite the fact that I am choosing to write the whole story in Katsuki's perspective. Until then though, I hope you won't think too badly of her. Like Katsuki, this is her first relationship, so of course there are also many things she doesn't know how to deal with.

Again, thank you for reading, and I hope you continue to enjoy this story!


	6. Game On

Hey guys, thanks for all the wonderful reviews! Sorry this is a bit late, I was busy the whole weekend. Anyhoo, It's my birthday today! Leave me a review as a present please! Haha :P

* * *

 **Chapter 6: Game On**

Determined as he is to rise up the hero ranks, Katsuki typically leaves work late, putting in extra hours of patrolling the streets when he can, or staying in the office to diligently finish up the post-mission reports that most of his peers tend to procrastinate on.

After all, though he may look and act like a delinquent, Katsuki had finished school as a top student, and he knows he has to keep up the practice of being studious to someday become the top hero too.

Tonight, however, his leg bounces up and down impatiently as he sits in his workstation. It's past six, and he's itching to leave, but his employer, who's in the middle of a phone call, hasn't budged from his seat.

Katsuki wants to avoid leaving ahead of his boss as much as possible, but if that phone call doesn't end soon, he's ready to say goodbye to propriety and hightail it out of the office.

He's meeting up with Ochaco tonight, and he doesn't want to be late. He'll never admit it out loud, but he's anxious to finally see her. It's been almost a week since his disastrous first meeting with her parents, and they haven't had a chance to spend time together since.

Ochaco did fulfill the promise she gave over text and called Katsuki up that same night. It was a short conversation though, since her parents were sleeping over and she didn't want to wake them up.

She stayed on the phone just long enough to reassure Katsuki that everything was good between them, that she loved him, and that she wouldn't break up with him even if her parents told her to…

… which, strangely enough, they did not actually do. In fact, not even her dad, who had been waving the threat around during his argument with Katsuki, so much as opened the topic back up during the entire weekend they spent with Ochaco.

"It was really weird," Ochaco had shared later, over a longer phone call that she had with Katsuki after her parents went back home. "When you left, Daddy just kind of started acting like nothing happened. He was suddenly cheerful again."

"He really didn't tell you to stop seeing me?" Katsuki asked again, just to be sure.

"No, he didn't talk about you at all, which was also weird because he usually makes random comments about you…" Hesitantly, Ochaco pointed out, "I mean, you heard him while you were hiding in the bathroom."

Yep, Katsuki sure did.

"So we're good for now, I guess," Ochaco had concluded, then she changed the topic to tell him about how her first week of being a fully employed pro hero was going. It has been hectic, to say the least, leaving them no opportunity to see each other until tonight.

Now it's Friday, and they've finally managed to find some time to go on a date. Dinner is all they have planned for now, but Katsuki is secretly hoping Ochaco would invite him to stay over at her place again afterward.

It's not so much because he's hoping for sex as it is because it had been so stressful the last time they spent the night together that he wants a redo of some sort.

Of course, he'd be more than happy if sex ends up happening too, so he's made sure to have the leftovers condoms from the previous weekend safely tucked in an inner pocket of his backpack, just in case.

Katsuki looks at his phone again. It's almost seven. He's supposed to meet Ochaco at the Tsukishima station at half past, so he really has to leave soon.

He looks over at his boss' office cubicle, and almost does a fist pump in celebration when he sees that the cursed phone call has finally finished. In a few minutes, Katsuki's muttering "Thanks for your hard work!" along with everyone as their boss bids them goodbye, and in yet another few minutes, Katsuki's dashing toward the exit himself.

He doesn't bother with goodbyes. He doesn't care, and his colleagues know him well enough by now to make too much of it.

He arrives at Tsukishima just a little before their designated meeting time. He goes straight to Exit 7, where he and Ochaco had agreed to meet, and stands by the side of the road to wait.

Right in front of him is their destination for the evening. Monja Street is dressed up in colored lights and buzzing with activity. The inviting smells wafting from the many restaurants along the street make Katsuki's stomach growl even though this place wouldn't have been his top pick for dinner.

It's way too crowded, and there are plenty of foreign tourists, too, who usually don't have any inhibitions at all when it comes to approaching pro heroes to ask for a picture.

But Ochaco had requested to go here. She has never had monjayaki in her life and now that she's working in Tokyo she wants to try it out. She's even offered to pay for both of them, which is unusual for her, being the cheapskate that she is.

Katsuki's been waiting for only a short while when she emerges from the station exit, slightly puffing. He raises a hand over the crowd to get her attention, and she goes over to him.

"Sorry I'm a bit late!" She exclaims as soon as she reaches him. "Nobody was leaving the office, and I didn't want to be the first!"

"It's fine, I just got here too," Katsuki tells her. "You look flushed. You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay, I just walked really fast without stopping from the office to the train station, and then from the platform to this exit," she explains. "The train was super packed too! City folks have it hard, huh?"

"That's going to be your life from now on, so you better get used to it," Katsuki points out. "Catch your breath, then let's go eat. The lines at the good restaurants will just keep getting longer."

"I'm ready, I'm ready!" Ochaco announces eagerly, her eyes bright. "The whole day I've been thinking about what kind of monjayaki I'll choose for tonight. I can't wait anymore!"

The corners of Katsuki's mouth twitch involuntarily. Ochaco's too cute sometimes. He gets an urge to reach out and hold her, but he knows she's shy about public displays of affection, so he stuffs his hands into the pockets of his jacket instead.

"Let's go," he invites, gesturing with his chin to the lit-up street in front of them.

He's starting to head off when he feels a light tug on the back of his jacket. When he looks back at Ochaco, he's surprised to see that the excitement she had displayed only moments ago has been replaced with what appears to be nervous hesitation.

"What's wrong?" He asks, turning back to face her. "I thought you're ready to eat?"

"I am," she confirms with a nod. "But before we go anywhere, I just…"

She chews on her bottom lip and then without further warning, she bows to him, bending from the waist, taking Katsuki by surprise.

"What–?" He's starting to ask, but she's already launched into an apology.

"Katsuki, I'm really, really sorry about what happened last weekend with my parents," she declares with feeling, keeping her head bowed.

"They said some very unpleasant things about you. My dad especially was very rude. I know it's hard to believe now, but he's actually a very nice person, so I hope you can forgive him."

"And I hope you can forgive me," she adds sadly, bowing even lower. "I wasn't able to defend you at all. I'm so ashamed of myself."

"Daddy has always spoiled me, you know? It was my first time seeing him like that, and I just froze up. I wanted to fix it, but didn't know what to do. I'm really sorry!"

Katsuki is so taken aback by this unexpected apology that he takes a moment to react. It's only when he notices that passersby have begun giving them apprehensive looks that he snaps out of it and urges Ochaco to raise her head.

"You don't need to apologize to me like that," he tells her, grabbing on to her shoulders to firmly push her into an upright position.

"But Katsuki, aren't you mad at me? I let my dad walk all over you," she laments, this time looking right at his face, her eyes shining with tears she's making an effort to hold back.

"Aren't I supposed to be the one saying that?" Katsuki asks, almost exasperatedly. "Aren't you mad at me for being rude to your dad? I yelled at him and shit."

"Well, of course I wish you hadn't done that," Ochaco admits. "But I can understand why you did. Daddy was being really mean."

She gives Katsuki a small, uncertain smile.

"Besides, how can I be mad at you when I know you tried so hard to keep your cool for my sake? I really, really appreciate that, and I'm proud that you managed to hold it in for so long."

Katsuki stares, and then he feels his heart erupt. Tightening his hold on her shoulders, he pulls Ochaco in for a hug, pressing her firmly against his chest.

Damn this girl. This is cheating! Not only is she cute and fucking badass, she understands him so well too. How can he not be head over heels in love with her? This is fucking cheating!

Ochaco squirms, trying to pull away. "K-Katsuki, we're in public…"

"Shut up," he mutters into her hair, refusing to release her. "You made more of a scene when you bowed all formal and shit. This is fine."

She fidgets a little bit more, but eventually stops and just turns her face so that she's hiding it in his chest.

When Katsuki finally lets go, she's blushing so hard it makes him want to keep teasing her, but he knows she's already had a rough day so he just smirks at her and drops it.

He does, however, offer her his hand as they start walking. She takes it with a shy smile, and she even leans her head very slightly against his arm as they explore Monja Street to find a place for dinner.

* * *

They spend a good thirty minutes waiting in line before their chosen restaurant finally has space for them. By then, Katsuki's starving, and cute or not, he doesn't have the patience to deal with Ochaco being indecisive about what kind of monjayaki to get.

He tells her to hurry it up, and she pouts as she's forced to decide at once. She goes for 'eggplant and cheese'. The restaurant claims it's the most popular choice among younger women, and Ochaco is easily convinced, even though she'd also been really interested in the 'mentaiko and mochi' variety.

Katsuki makes a face at her, but he ends up ordering 'mentaiko and mochi' so she can try it too. Her eyes light up with so much joy when she hears him place the order that he immediately dismisses how he'd originally wanted something else.

When their bowls arrive, Ochaco leans forward expectantly in her seat. Now comes the part where they cook their own food on the hot plate built onto the tabletop, and she's excited to try it herself.

"Don't put in the batter yet," Katsuki instructs as he begins to scoop out the contents of his bowl to place them on the hot plate. "If you do, it will harden before the other ingredients are cooked."

Ochaco nods and mirrors his actions, emptying her bowl of eggplant slices, grated cheese, and shredded cabbage onto the hot plate, careful not to include the batter at the bottom.

"Mix it all together, then spread it out and chop everything up real well with the spatulas… Wait, not that one," he corrects when Ochaco picks up the small spatula sitting beside her plate. "Use the big spatulas that came with the bowl."

She follows his instructions obediently, her small eyebrows meeting as she creases her forehead in concentration. Katsuki suppresses a smile as he watches her.

"Okay, that's enough," he stops her after the ingredients begin to soften. "Now make a hole in the middle of the mixture like this and then pour the batter inside."

Ochaco does as she's told, but panics when some of the batter escapes the circular wall she had formed with her chopped-up ingredients.

"It's getting ruined, Katsuki," she frets. "What do I do? What do I do?!"

"Calm down, moron. Just push it back in."

"It's not going back in," she wails. "Help!"

Katsuki clicks his tongue as he reaches over to her side to skillfully ease the batter back into the center of her mixture. He lets it heat up a bit, and then he starts folding all the other ingredients into the batter.

"There, just keep mixing everything now and then flip, and mix again," he tells her as he goes back to his own monjayaki to do the same.

Ochaco takes her spatulas to the monjayaki, then after a few minutes of some energetic mixing and flipping, she finally asks, "Is it ready yet?"

"I like mine a little crunchy so I wait longer," he tells her. "But you can eat it now. Use the small spatula on your plate."

Ochaco eagerly cuts off a small portion of her monjayaki to try.

"Press down on the spatula so the mixture sticks, then just use it like a spoon," Katsuki instructs.

He demonstrates how it's done, and Ochaco follows suit. Her face breaks into an expression of pure bliss when she finally gets her first taste of Tokyo's famous monjayaki, and this time, Katsuki isn't able to hold back a grin.

"You like it?" He asks unnecessarily.

She nods vigorously. "It's so good!" She squeals.

"Yeah," Katsuki agrees. "It looks like vomit, but it's delicious."

"Katsuki!" Ochaco exclaims in horror. "Why did you have to say that?!"

"What? It does look like vomit, right?"

"Well, yes, but you didn't have to say it," she complains. "You're ruining the experience!"

"If you're disgusted, you can stop eating and just give me your share," he tells her with a shrug.

"Nice try, but no way!" She sticks her tongue out at him, then dives back into her food for another spoonful.

Katsuki snickers. Ochaco is way too cute. It's cheating, it really is, but somehow he doesn't mind at all.

* * *

Katsuki and Ochaco later emerge from the restaurant full and satisfied. She happily chatters as they walk hand in hand along Monja Street, and he listens with the patience that he seems to have only for her.

Going home, they would be getting off at different stops from the train, so when they reach Tsukishima Station, they don't go in immediately and instead head over to the side of the road to stall a little more.

They would be taking the same train going home but getting off at different stops if they were going to their respective houses, so when they reach Tsukishima station, they head over to the side of the road to stall a little more.

Katsuki's still holding on to hope that Ochaco would extend him an invitation to sleep over, but she's not saying anything, so he decides to prod a little.

"It's not that late yet and it's a weekend," he begins, trying to sound casual. "Want me to go see you off at your station?"

"Oh no, you don't have to," Ochaco says, waving her hands. "I'll be fine on my own."

"I know that, but don't you want to spend more time together?" Katsuki asks. His face grows a little warm as he realizes what he'd said. Damn, that sounded a bit clingy.

Ochaco's blush deepens. "That's really sweet, Katsuki," she murmurs. "But you'll be going out of your way. Aren't you tired yet?"

'I can sleep over at your place and save myself the roundtrip,' is what Katsuki's itching to say, but there's no way he'll be able to. Not without spontaneously self-combusting in embarrassment.

He's still trying to come up with an alternative response when Ochaco speaks again, but this time she sounds more than just a little sad.

"I would invite you to stay the night again," she says softly. "But after what happened last week, I think… I think maybe we should hold off on that for now."

Katsuki feels his heart sink, then he starts to get mad at himself for having been naïve. What an idiot he was, thinking the incident last weekend has been completely resolved. Of course it wasn't. How can it be, when it's Ochaco's family on the line?

Ochaco will always love and respect her parents, and their blessing will always be of highest importance to her. She may love Katsuki enough to stay with him despite her parents' opinion, but looking at the big picture, all he's really getting is another chance.

Because there's no way, absolutely no way, that their relationship will progress any further if they don't get over the hurdle of receiving her parents' approval.

Even now, Ochaco is already putting up a barrier. She's saying she won't be intimate with Katsuki, that she won't invite him into her home at all, effectively regressing their relationship by a whole level.

"I'm so sorry, Katsuki," Ochaco continues sadly. "I know there's nothing wrong about what we're doing, but I still can't help feeling guilty."

Wringing her hands in distress, her voice pained and melancholy, she adds, "It eats at me to be doing something that I know would upset my parents. I don't want to disappoint them any more than I already have."

She looks like she's about to cry, her eyes glistening, her bottom lip wobbling, so Katsuki swallows his own feelings and puts on a pokerface. He can mope later, when he's alone.

"It's fine. You don't have to apologize," he tells her as calmly as he's able. "I'm not going to be a dick and pressure you, so don't worry."

She sniffles and dabs at her eyes with the heels of her palms to dry them. "Thank you. I really appreciate that," she murmurs. "I'll make it up to you, I swear."

This time, despite them being in public, she goes ahead and presses herself against him voluntarily. He brings his arms up to circle around her back and squeezes reassuringly.

This whole mess is a bitch, but he can't find it in himself to be even a little mad at Ochaco for her decision. In fact, if anything, he feels sorry for her. He feels more sorry for her than he does for himself.

To keep dating him despite knowing how her parents feel about it, it's the closest Ochaco can get to open rebellion, and Katsuki can't imagine how thoroughly torn she must be feeling deep inside.

"I'll sort this thing out with my parents," she promises as he cradles her. "Just give me some time to figure out how to do it, okay?"

"Yeah, sure," Katsuki says, though it sounds a little hollow. He's not confident there's anything she can do about it. He's not confident there's anything anyone can do at all.

He's simply not the man Ochaco's parents would have liked for her, it all boils down to that. How can anyone do anything about that?

'Prove that you can be better.'

Katsuki suddenly recalls the words his own dad had spoken. His breath hitches, and right then and there, he makes up his mind.

"No, Ochaco," he suddenly says, and she looks up at him confused. "You don't need to do anything. Let me handle it."

Her eyes widen in surprise and she opens her mouth to argue, but Katsuki shakes his head firmly.

"I'll do it, Ochaco. I'll show them. I'll make your parents eat their words and fall in love with me. I can do it, you just watch."

He tightens his hold on Ochaco and places a determined kiss on the top of her head. This situation may look hopeless, but fuck the possibilities, fuck statistics. He's not Bakugo Katsuki if he doesn't at least try!

Ochaco's parents better be ready, because it's fucking game on.

* * *

 **A/N:**

1) In this chapter, Katsuki and Ochaco are both apprehensive to leave work even though their shifts are over. This is because in Japanese work culture, an employee shows dedication to work by staying long hours in the office. In general, it's also considered appropriate to let your superiors leave before you.

2) When leaving earlier than colleagues, the custom is to say "Osaki ni shitsureishimasu!", which doesn't have a literal equivalent but means something like, "Excuse me for leaving ahead." The response is "Otsukaresama desu / deshita!" which roughly means "Good work!" or "Thanks for your hard work!", which is what Katsuki says along with everyone when his boss finally leaves the office in the beginning of this chapter.

3) Monja Street is a street lined with plenty of monjayaki resturants. It's just outside Tsukishima station Exit 7 in the Chuo ward of Tokyo. Monjayaki is the Kanto (East) version of the more popular okonomiyaki, which most people translate as "Japanese pancake". Monjayaki consists of batter made with flour and dashi stock, and a variety of different ingredients. You cook it on a hot plate on your table. It doesn't look very attractive, but it's apparently very good, according to testimonials on the Internet. I've never had it myself, but it's definitely on my to-eat list for my next trip to Tokyo. For more info on how to make this dish, check out /en/863.

4) I just realized that the MHA wiki actually has the birth places of the characters. Ugh, I've always written the Bakugo home to be in the outskirts of Tokyo, but apparently, it's in a whole other prefecture! It's too late to change anything now, so I'll just stick to my headcanon.


	7. Their First Everything

A/N:

This chapter has been rewritten as of 28 Jun 2019.

Not much has changed in the overall essence or flow of the chapter, but after rereading the story from the start, I decided that this chapter was not up to par with the quality of the first 6, so I decided to improve the entire thing. I'm much happier with this now. If you have the time, please do read.

* * *

 **Chapter 7: Their First Everything**

"Seriously, Bakugo? You really said that?"

Kirishima says it way louder than appropriate in an office setting. His outburst causes more than a few annoyed heads to turn their way, and Katsuki viciously stomps on his foot under the table they're sharing.

Kirishima flinches, more in surprise than in pain, and mouths a pathetic 'sorry' to everyone in the room before hiding his face behind a mission report under the guise of reading.

From across the table, Katsuki sends him a fierce scowl. If Kirishima can't control his big mouth, then this conversation is over. He's already uncomfortable as it is sharing the past week's events to one person; he doesn't need the whole agency in on the story as well.

"Sorry man, it's just wow, you know," Kirishima whispers. "I mean, that was hella manly, Bakugo! I have renewed respect for you"

His eyes are practically shining with admiration. The sight brings a nasty grimace to Katsuki's face.

"Don't be gross," he complains, punctuating with a strangled noise from the back of his throat. "Besides, I spoke some big words but I have no clue what to do."

"Why don't I help you?" Kirishima offers with all the excitement of a kid about to open his presents. "Let's win over Uraraka-san's parents together!"

Katsuki complettely tramples on Kirishima's camaraderie.

"You, help me?" He sneers. "You haven't had a single girlfriend in your life. How would you know what to do?"

"Whoa, I'm just trying to be a good friend here," Kirishima says, face red and eyes wide in a mixture of embarrassment and affront. "There's no need to be mean."

Katsuki snorts without further comment, his attention entirely on the mission reports that he and Kirishima are sorting for their seniors. It's boring clerical work that he's itching to quickly finish so he can go out and crush some villains.

"Besides," Kirishima continues defensively. "I may not have a girlfriend, but I am well-loved by parents all around. I'm an expert at winning them over. Just ask your mom!"

"Don't be gross," Katsuki says again, more vehemently this time, his face crinkling even as his hands continue to mechanically work on the folders in front of him. "I don't wanna hear about you flirting with mothers, especially mine."

Kirishima goes almost as red as his hair. "What? I don't– I never–! I meant parents love me, you know, as a… as a son! I don't flirt. Man, you're gross!"

He's not done sputtering, but Katsuki cuts him off, tired of it already.

"Yeah? Okay, what do you suggest I do?" He asks without much commitment.

To be fair, it's true that his mom loves Kirishima. So does that lady who sells croquettes at the station, and that elderly couple who minds the agency cafeteria.

So maybe there is some stock to be put on Kirishima's self-advertised ability in winning parents over. In any case, he won't shut up otherwise, so Katsuki better just give it a listen.

Kirishima seems to quickly forget about having been offended earlier. He grins widely, eyes bright and obviously elated about being allowed to help.

"Right," he says all business-like. "First, I need some information. What are the Urarakas like?"

Katsuki shrugs. "Traditional, prudish. Dad's an asshole. Other than that, they're pretty generic, I guess."

"Wow," Kirishima reacts dryly. "And you wonder why they don't like you.

Katsuki bristles. "Well, how the fuck was I supposed to find out any more than that? They were like 'Fuck you, Bakugo, stay away from our daughter', and then I left, that's it."

"All right, all right, got it," Kirishima tries to calm him down. He scratches the back of his head while a crease forms at the center of his forehead. "Isn't there anything else we can work with though? Is there anything you know they like?"

Katsuki's expression sours even more. His eyes almost turn white in anger as he spits out, "That little shit Deku. That's who they like."

His hands clench into fists, but a small explosion ignites and escapes anyway. Kirishima practically dives onto the table to protect the piles of reports they'd been sorting. It earns him another round of stern looks from their colleagues, which he hastily addresses with a series of successive apologies and bows.

After everyone has looked away, he turns back to Katsuki with an exasperated look, which Katsuki responds to with defiance.

"Dude, I get you, all right? But you gotta calm down! " Kirishima hisses. "We're surrounded by paper here, you know? One stray spark, boom, this office is toast."

"Go complain to Deku, that little nerd," Katsuki whispers back angrily. "What the hell does everyone see in that asshat anyway?"

He imagines that if Ochaco were here now, she'd likely call him immature for laying the blame on Deku, and he gets even more annoyed at the thought.

"Relax, Bakugo," Kirishima tries to reassure. "Don't take it to heart, man. It's prolly just cause Midoriya looks safe, is all. Know what I mean?"

"No, I fucking don't," Katsuki says irritably. "What do you mean 'looks safe'?"

"Oh, like, you know," Kirishima begins uncertainly. "Like, uh, like if you locked him in a closet with a pretty girl, he'd just close his eyes and faint? Or maybe recite sutras, I don't know."

"You mean he looks like he won't take advantage of a girl?"

"Yeah, exactly!" Kirishima confirms, sounding relieved that he'd gotten it. "If I had a girlfriend, I wouldn't mind her being alone with Midoriya, you know? He looks safe as safe goes."

Katsuki frowns. "Don't I look 'safe'?"

Kirishima doesn't even miss a beat.

"No, you don't," he replies with a straight face, only to immediately raise hardened arms to ward off the fist that Katsuki sends straight his way.

The legs of their chairs scratch against the floor as Katsuki attacks and Kirishima evades, making a grating sound that distracts their colleagues yet again and finally earns them both a stern reprimand from one of their seniors at the agency.

Kirishima recites a thorough apology and settles down, looking embarrassed. Katsuki just scowls defiantly, but after a while grudgingly resumes his seat as well.

When their senior leaves and everyone else goes back to minding their own business, Katsuki shoots Kirishima a malevolent glare that gets him activating his Quirk again as a defense mechanism.

"I'm just as safe as fucking Deku," he asserts stubbornly. "Maybe I don't look it, but I am. It pisses me off that Ochaco's stupid parents can't see that."

"Eh, well," Kirishima begins with a smile that looks suspiciously patronizing. "I s'pose you should cut them some slack. Can't blame them for being protective of their only daughter."

Katsuki doesn't have a response to that. He knows Kirishima's probably right. But that hardly makes the situation any less shitty.

He clicks his tongue. "I thought you were going to give me advice," he reminds, changing the topic. "What do I do to get Ochaco's stupid parents to like me?"

"I think you just need to get them to know you better."

"That's it?" Katsuki scoffs. "And here I thought you had some genius tips, given how you were boasting."

He stands up, taking an armful of the mission reports on the table, which they're supposed to be filing by category. He walks over to the filing cabinet for cases starting in 'S', and starts cramming in several folders labeled 'Scams through deception Quirks'.

He hadn't wanted Kirishima's help, but he's still a bit pissed that he doesn't have more useful advice.

"Bakugo, did you even understand what I told you?"

Kirishima has followed him to the filing cabinets with more mission reports in his arms. Katsuki accepts his help with the folders, but ignores the question.

"Let's just get this done. I want to blast some villain ass."

Maybe if he gets out and beats up a villain or two, he'll get some inspiration on what to do with Ochaco's parents.

"No, seriously," Kirishima insists. "I know it sounds real obvious like of course you should get them to know you better. But that's not all it is you know?"

"Sure," Katsuki grunts, not really paying attention.

"If you want them to get to know you better, you have to get to know them better too," Kirishima goes ahead and explains anyway. "You need to build a relationship with them, is what I'm saying."

Katsuki's hands pause their work. "Build a relationship," he repeats. He finally deigns to look at Kirishima.

"Right," Kirishima confirms, looking happy that he's finally paying attention. "Parents love me because I get to really know them, you know. They're not just my friends' parents, they're my friends too."

When Katsuki just continues to stare at him with a frown, he tries to explain further by citing an example.

"I know your mom's favorite cheesecake shop," he points out. "But, don't get me wrong, I don't flirt with her, okay? That's gross. I mean, it's not gross because your mom's gross. She 's not, but–"

"Yeah, okay, you can stop now," Katsuki interrupts with a grimace.

"You're the one making this weird," Kirishima complains, his face all pink. "But anyway, you get what I'm saying, right? About building a relationship with Uraraka-san's parents?"

"I get it, but how do you suggest I do that, genius?" Katsuki feels his temper flaring up again. "You do know they live in Mie? That's a thousand miles away, if you weren't aware."

Kirishima is unfazed. "So? There's the bullet train or you can take a highway bus. Go some weekends and bring Uraraka-san along, show them you're not stealing their daughter away. Be their friend!"

Katsuki stares at him incredulously. "You're stupid."

"What? Come on, it's a solid idea!" Kirishima insists. "What's a few round trips with your salary?"

Katsuki shakes his head, grimacing like he's swallowed something nasty.

Kirishima makes perfect sense, not that he'll ever admit it out loud, but seriously? After that disastrous first meeting, how can he even consider actually going on a field trip to the Urarakas' hometown and deliberately spending time with them?

An image of him sharing a meal with Ochaco's family, pouring each other tea and laughing together, crosses his mind for an instant. He gags involuntarily.

No fucking way that's gonna happen.

"Can't I just send them gifts?" He asks gruffly, and Kirishima looks at him like he's stupid, which annoys Katsuki, because if there's anyone stupid between the two of them, that's definitely not him.

"If you're nervous, I can go with you sometime," Kirishima offers cheerfully. "We could visit Iga on the way and look at the ninja stuff. That's in Mie, too, right?"

"Who'd what to go with you?" Katsuki grumbles as he files the last of their mission reports under 'Arson by use of combustion Quirks'.

Kirishima just laughs though and gives him a friendly slap on the back.

* * *

"You want to visit my parents?" Ochaco asks in surprise.

The video that registers on Katsuki's screen is slightly grainy, no doubt because of the low quality of Ochaco's phone, but it's nonetheless obvious that her eyes have gone round as saucers.

"'Want'? Who said anything about that?" Katsuki asks with a grimace, and she's unable to suppress a sheepish grin.

"Trust me, I don't 'want' to," he clarifies. "I just asked if you think it would help."

"Well, maybe," she says, but it's apprehensive at best. "They would probably appreciate the effort of you going all the way to Mie to pay them a visit."

"But…?" Katsuki prods. He's been her long enough by now to know that when she phrases things that way, there's always a catch.

Ochaco chews on her lower lip as she considers how to answer. Katsuki lets her take her time, his eyes leaving the screen of his phone as he fluffs the pillows behind him.

He and Ochaco don't see each other as often anymore now that they're out of the dorms, so it's become an almost nightly ritual for them to go on a video call before bed.

It's close to midnight now though, so he really should be getting ready to sleep.

"But," she finally continues. "You and Daddy had a fight last time. So maybe it's too soon to show up at his house?"

Katsuki snorts. "If we wait for me to get an invitation, we'll be waiting forever."

He doesn't expect the grin that Ochaco flashes him. "You'll be waiting with me forever?" She teases.

"That's not what I said," he asserts grumpily, but he nonetheless feels his cheeks getting hot. "Whatever, never mind my idea then, I didn't wanna see your dad anyway."

To be honest, he's rather relieved that Kirishima's suggestion got shot down. It might have been his only solid lead in this near-impossible task of getting Ochaco's parents to approve of him, but he's no fan of it.

It's not the long, expensive out-of-town trip that really deters him, though that's definitely a factor. More than anything, it's the thought of having another encounter with the Urarakas.

He's not ready. It's just inconceivable for him this point. Just thinking about having to be in their presence again makes his skin crawl.

"Sorry, Katsuki," Ochaco offers shyly. "I've never had a boyfriend before, so I don't really know how to handle this kind of situation."

Katsuki grunts and lets himself fall back to lie on his pillows. He holds his phone parallel to the ceiling and studies Ochaco's low resolution rendering on the screen. She looks meek, even a bit concerned, as she waits for him to react.

Maybe she's right and he wouldn't be having this problem with her parents if he weren't her first. Or maybe he wouldn't be at such a loss if she weren't his first. But then, maybe they wouldn't have seen entire sides of each other, too.

The way she'd made him float in her fluster when they first held hands, or headbutted him by accident after their first kiss, or been overly self-conscuous when they first slept together, he'd have missed all these things if he'd come into her life after somebody else.

"I like that I'm your first everything, Ochaco," he admits out loud. "I don't mind that you don't know what to do."

The pink in Ochaco's cheeks spreads, and it's a while before she's bold enough to mumble, "I'm your first everything, too."

Katsuki figures it's his turn to tease. "Yeah?" He drawls with a smirk. "Are you sure about that?"

Ochaco scrunches her nose. "You're teasing me but you're blushing too."

"No, I'm not. It's just your shitty phone," he tells her, trying to keep a straight face.

But he can't bite back the small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, especially when she simply sticks her tongue out at him in reply.

He'd never tell her, of course, but he liked her being his first everything too.

* * *

A/N:

Thank you for reading! Leave me comments! Those things encourage me! :)

A note:

According to the MHA Wiki, the Uraraka family is from Mie prefecture, which is around 800 miles from Tokyo. In this chapter, Kirishima also mentions a place called Iga. It's a province in modern-day Mie that used to be a center of ninjutsu and a birthplace of ninja clans in the past.


	8. Hogging The Spotlight

**Chapter 8: Hogging The Spotlight**

Katsuki normally has Saturdays off, but today, The Explosion Hero is attending a high school festival that he had been invited to as a special guest.

His managers had told him it would be good publicity, and therefore good for his hero ranking, so now here he is, sitting in the student council room waiting for his turn in the program.

Across the table from him sits Todoroki, who's absently looking out the window at the festivities below.

The school had apparently conducted a survey among the student population on which pro heroes to invite for an interview at the festival, and Katsuki had tied with Todoroki for the number one spot.

"You've been fuming since I came in," Todoroki observes, looking away from the window to meet Katsuki's eyes. "Are you displeased to be sharing the stage with me?"

"Yeah, got a problem with that?" Katsuki brashly retorts.

Todoroki raises both shoulders in the smallest of shrugs. "It doesn't really matter to me. But if you had told me this was very important to you, I could have declined the invitation."

"Huh?" Katsuki scowls. "I couldn't give less of a shit about this event. I just hate having to be in the same space as you."

Todoroki raises his eyebrows then points out the window. "If you didn't care, why would you invite them to come?"

Katsuki looks to where Todoroki is pointing and immediately jumps to his feet. Below, walking through the various booths that the students had set up for the festival, is a pair that he definitely hadn't invited.

"Ochaco?" He says out loud in surprise. "And Kirishima?" What the hell are they doing here?!

He whips out his phone and dials Ochaco's number. He watches her from the window as she fumbles to take the call while juggling a bunch of snacks in one arm.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Katsuki asks as soon as the call connects.

"Oh jeez, we're busted so soon," Ochaco whines. "Kirishima-kun and I were planning to surprise you!"

She starts looking around for him, and through the phone Katsuki hears her ask Kirishima to do the same.

"Look up," Katsuki instructs blandly. "Second floor, window to your right."

"Oh there you are! I can see you!" She says excitedly as they make eye contact. "Kirishima-kun, there he is, look! Todoroki-kun is with him, too."

Both Ochaco and Kirishima start waving enthusiastically from below. Todoroki raises his hand in a gesture of acknowledgement, but Katsuki simply scowls.

"Don't wave, idiot, you're attracting too much attention," he chastises. "Do you want a mob of people asking for your autograph?"

Ochaco and Kirishima had come in casual clothes, but if they keep standing out like that, someone's bound to recognize them. They both sheepishly withdraw their arms.

"Anyway, come up here. Ask for the student council room."

Katsuki hangs up without waiting for a response and drops back down his chair. He only has to wait a short while before the door slides open and a student council representative announces that he and Todoroki have visitors.

"Yo, Bakugo, Todoroki," Kirishima greets with a grin as he and Ochaco make their way inside the room.

"Why did you come?" Katsuki asks blandly.

"It's your big moment!" Ochaco says excitedly. "We've come to support you!"

"Huh? I don't need it."

"Aw, don't be such a grouch!"

She pokes his cheeks, trying to pull the corners of his mouth upward in a smile. Kirishima unsuccessfully tries to stifle a snort of laughter. Glaring at him, Katsuki takes hold of Ochaco's wrists to pull her hands away from his face.

"Stop that," he grumbles.

She only grins in return, and Katsuki finds himself so drawn into her brightness that he doesn't realize he's still holding on to her wrists, staring closely at her face, until Kirishima clears his throat.

Katsuki lets Ochaco go and she takes a step backward, blushing madly. An awkward atmosphere settles over the room, and Kirishima clears his throat again.

"Say, Todoroki," he calls louder than necessary. "I'm getting juice. Wanna come with?"

"I still haven't finished my drink." Todoroki replies, gesturing to his bottle of green tea, obviously not getting Kirishima's drift.

"Yeah, well, just come!"

Kirishima strides to the table by the window and grabs Todoroki to physically haul him out of his chair. He drags him out the door and slides it closed behind them, leaving Katsuki and Ochaco all alone in the room.

She's dressed modestly as always. Her skirt is short but opaque black tights conceal her legs. A jacket covers her shoulders too, and the neckline of her shirt is high enough that it doesn't reveal even her collarbones.

But she's getting Katsuki's heart racing nonetheless, especially with that cute, embarrassed expression she's making.

He feels his own face heat up, and he clenches his hands into fists in a pathetic attempt to calm his throbbing pulse.

Katsuki had acted all mature about Ochaco's decision to hold off on being intimate again due to the issue with her parents, and at that time he had been confident he could follow through.

But now, barely six weeks later, he realizes how naïve he had been. He can't imagine how much longer he can endure.

Maybe if this had happened before they actually had sex, it wouldn't be so bad. But now that they've done it, and Katsuki knows exactly what lies beyond the boundaries she's set…

He didn't think it would be this hard to keep his desires in check, but lately everything about her seems so enticing. Everything she does makes him recall that night.

Realizing his train of thought is taking a dangerous turn, Katsuki marches to the table and grabs Todoroki's bottle of tea. He aggressively chugs it, desperate to refresh the inside of his mouth that has gone uncomfortably dry.

For some reason, it makes Ochaco giggle.

"What?" Katsuki asks in confusion, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand as he sets the empty bottle back down on the table.

"You've just had an indirect kiss with Todoroki-kun!"

He stares at her, unimpressed. "Are you a middle-schooler?"

"Well, sorry for being childish!"

She pouts in mock offense, but it doesn't last too long, and soon, her earlier embarrassment forgotten, she approaches and wraps him in a big hug.

"I better recharge before Kirishima-kun and Todoroki-kun come back," she mumbles against his chest, squeezing him in her arms. "I don't see you as much anymore!"

Katsuki relaxes into her embrace. Freeing up a hand, he rests it on the top of her head. "Yeah, it sucks," he murmurs quietly.

Ochaco smells nice, a mix of gentle baby wash and the fruity shampoo he remembers from the one night he had stayed over at her apartment.

Her hands are clutching into the back of his hero costume. The fabric is thick, but even so, he seems to distinctly feel the soft pads of her fingers on his skin. A tingly sensation forms at each point of contact and spreads throughout his body.

Her face is in his chest. Her nose is poking his sternum, and below it, her lips are pressed against him, so close to where his heart is pounding steadily faster.

His hand slides down her hair, pulling with the tiniest bit of force so that she raises her head to look at him.

She's all red, a lot more than usual, and Katsuki wonders if she feels what he does. Is she conscious of his scent too? Does she feel tingly where they touch?

Does she also regret their promise not to be intimate?

He wants to find out. The hand on her hair tightens its grip, and he brings his face lower, his eyes fluttering shut…

Then the door slides open, startling them both.

Ochaco jumps away like she'd been burned, fast enough that Kirishima doesn't seem to notice anything weird as he enters the room with Todoroki in tow.

Katsuki's blood is pounding in his ears, so loudly he doesn't seem to hear the chatter that has started around him. His face feels hot, and his mouth has gone dry again, Todoroki's tea a distant memory.

When Kirishima throws him a bottle of juice, he downs it in one gulp.

* * *

Their respective agencies had screened and pre-approved the list of interview questions, but not their answers, and definitely not their unintentional banter.

Katsuki and Todoroki are acting no different than usual, but apparently, that's enough to keep their audience entertained, especially the girls, who seem to be making no effort in holding back their squealing over Todoroki's "cool" attitude.

Katsuki scoffs. "Cool", his ass. "Boring" is more like it. Not that he has anything to be upset about, of course, since the squealing over him is just as loud. Louder, in fact, by a smidge, if he can trust his ears.

Heh, take that, Todoroki.

In any case, the interview is finally drawing to a close, and Katsuki can't wait. He hadn't counted on being able to spend any time with Ochaco this weekend, but since she's made the effort to come here, they can hang out for a bit.

His eyes wander the hall and they settle on where she's standing beside Kirishima near the back. When she sees him looking, she gives him a discreet thumbs up and a wink. He can't fight back the smirk that tugs on the corner of his lips.

"We're down to our last question for this panel," the emcee announces. "Bakugo-san, may we ask you to please draw the last question from the box?"

Katsuki sticks his hand inside the box containing slips of paper with all the pre-approved questions. He captures one and accepts the microphone handed to him by a student to read the question out loud.

"Are you dating anyone right now?"

When he realizes what he's read, Katsuki freezes. There's an eruption of excited squealing from the audience, but he ignores it and instead lifts his eyes from the slip of paper to glare at the emcee.

"What are you playing at? This wasn't in the list we were given."

The emcee looks alarmed. "P-p-please accept our sincere apologies! Somebody must have put that in there as a prank. You can just pick another one!"

The audience explodes with protests.

"Hey, no fair! We want to hear the answer to that!"

"Yeah, it should be fine, right? It's a harmless question!"

The emcee gives it her best effort to calm everyone down and get on with the program, but she's helpless against the horde of high school brats who feel cheated of their fun.

She looks pleadingly at the guest heroes with her on stage, as though asking for assistance, and Katsuki prepares to create a small explosion on his palm to shut everyone up.

Before he can do anything though, Todoroki steps forward and takes the microphone from his hand. His voice cuts through the chaos.

"My work does not allow me the leisure to pursue a relationship, so no, I'm not dating anyone right now."

The negative energy in the room immediately lifts. Girls in the audience squeal and scream in excitement. Katsuki can swear some of them literally fainted and fell off their chairs.

He grits his teeth. Damn asshole, getting one up on him!

Katsuki doesn't particularly care about girls, but he's worked up over the fact that, with this stunt, Todoroki has completely dominated the interview. It won't be surprising if that's all everyone is going to talk about after this.

It'll be like Katsuki wasn't even there sharing the stage with him.

His hands tighten into fists. Well, fuck that. No way he's going to let that happen.

Although his relationship with Ochaco hasn't officially been made public, it's not like he'd been instructed by his managers to keep it a secret either. That means it's fine to reveal it, right? No one's here to tell him otherwise anyway.

Besides, wouldn't Ochaco's parents appreciate this? Wouldn't this show them that Katsuki's serious about her? After all, he wouldn't be making their relationship known to the public if he wanted to sleep around.

It's only a matter of time anyway before the media get hold of the information one way or another, so now's a good chance as any to announce it.

Katsuki roughly grabs the microphone from Todoroki. "Stand back, asshole. I'm not letting you hog the spotlight."

"I wasn't trying to," Todoroki replies.

Katsuki taps the microphone loudly to get everyone's attention.

"Listen up, you brats. I'll answer the damn question too, so you better be grateful."

Excited murmurs erupt in the audience. He scans the hall to make sure that everyone's all ears, but he makes it a point to avoid looking directly at the area near the back.

If he sees Ochaco blushing like hell or Kirishima grinning at him like a proud parent, he just might lose his nerve and change his mind.

Katsuki breathes in deeply, then he says it all in one go.

"I'm currently in a relationship with another pro hero, and that person is standing over there."

Everyone's eyes go to where his finger is pointing, all the way to the back of the hall. A chorus of giddy shrieking explodes from the girls, and Katsuki smugly notes that it's way louder than what Todoroki's answer had received.

"No way, you're dating Red Riot?!"

Wait, what?

Katsuki looks closely to where he's pointing, only to meet the eyes of a pale-faced Kirishima. Ochaco's nowhere to be found.

What the fuck?! Where the hell did she go?!

"Wait, that's not it!" Katsuki yells into the microphone, but nobody's listening anymore. To his horror, he can hear various pings and dings from phones sharing the news on social media."I said wait, goddammit! Don't fucking post this, I'll kill you all!"

Beside him on the stage, Todoroki coolly says, "Congrats. The spotlight is all yours."

* * *

 **A/N:**

1) Pre-Approved Questions  
I don't know if it's just our company, but when we do interviews with Japanese celebrities, we always submit a list of questions to their management first for screening and pre-approval.

2) "That person is standing over there."  
Of course I made the term gender-ambiguous to fit the scenario, but I don't think it's strange for this sentence to be said this way if Katsuki is saying it in Japanese.


	9. An Opening

_**Previously**_

After a disastrous first meeting with Ochaco's parents, Katsuki is now on a mission to change their impression of him. At Kirishima's suggestion, he asks to visit her hometown in Mie, but Ochaco dissuades him, fearing that it would make Katsuki look too brazen if he showed up so soon after what happened. They abandon the idea.

Meanwhile, Katsuki gets invited to a school event as a guest pro-hero, and in his desire to hog the spotlight decides to announce his relationship with Ochaco to the public. He points to where he thought she would be, not knowing she had left the room. The audience then misunderstands, thinking he had pointed to Kirishima.

* * *

 **Chapter 9: An Opening**

At a table tucked in an inconspicuous corner of a café, a collective sigh issues from Katsuki, Ochaco, and Kirishima.

To say that it's been one hell of a day would be an understatement, and Katsuki personally feels even more exhausted right now than he usually does after a long day of hero work.

"You seriously picked the worst time to leave the hall," he grumbles. The words are for Ochaco, but he keeps his scowl directed at his coffee.

"I'm sooo sorry," Ochaco wails. "The girls who fainted because of Todoroki-kun had to be brought to the infirmary. The teachers looked really troubled so I offered to help."

Katsuki clicks his tongue moodily. He brings a stirrer to his coffee even though he hasn't added any sugar. His fingers just needed to have something to fidget with.

"Besides, I didn't know you were going to do something like that." Ochaco mumbles. "You did it so suddenly, I wasn't prepared at all."

From the peripheries of his vision, Katsuki can see the pink on her cheeks start to spread. He doesn't say anything, suddenly feeling self-conscious himself.

In the heat of the moment, when his mind had solely been on beating Todoroki, announcing his relationship with Ochaco so flashily hadn't seemed like a big deal.

But now that he's looking back on it without an adrenaline filter, he sure feels stupid, and that's not even counting the whole misunderstanding it has led to.

He tries to hide his embarrassment by scowling even more fiercely at his drink, but it seems to give Ochaco the wrong impression because she starts in alarm and reaches out to grab his sleeve.

"Katsuki, are you mad? I'm sorry if my timing was bad. I honestly didn't mean to cause you trouble."

He finally turns to look at her. A small crease has formed at the center of her forehead, a clear sign of worry, and Katsuki flicks at it with a finger.

"Ow!" Ochaco flinches.

"You shouldn't worry," he says. "I'm not mad at you. Don't mind me."

She brings a hand up to rub at her forehead. "That hurt, Katsuki!"

She's pouting in defiance. It's cute. The corner of his lip twitches in a smile and he reaches out to replace her fingers in rubbing the redness away.

If they were in private right now, he'd lean forward for a kiss. But they weren't, so he settles for a pat on the head. She smiles at him, and for just a little while, it makes Katsuki forget the kind of day he's had.

Across them from the table, Kirishima clears his throat. "I'm glad you two are getting along so well, but it makes me feel a bit awkward when you two flirt like I'm not here."

Katsuki immediately withdraws his hand from Ochaco's head, feeling himself go hot in the face. Likewise, Ochaco retreats from him as far back as she can without leaving her chair.

Kirishima sighs, then slumps against the table. "Bakugo, I honestly kinda want to hit you right now."

"What, it wasn't my fault!" Katsuki goes on the defensive.

Kirishima ignores him and sighs again. "Why did you have to go and do that? If you weren't such a show-off, none of this would have happened."

"Hey, why is it just my fault?" Katsuki complains. "Blame Todoroki! Asshole just had to answer the question and try to show me up!

"No, you idiot, he answered the question so you wouldn't have to. He was trying to help you out of that situation!"

"Yeah? Well he didn't help right!"

"And did you really have to do it all showy like that?" Kirishima asks exasperatedly. "If you'd just wanted to brag that you had a girlfriend, you could have just used words like a normal person."

Katsuki feels his face flush hotly. He opens his mouth to spit something snarky, but he swallows wrong in his fluster and a choked sound comes out of him instead.

"Are you okay?" Ochaco asks, leaning forward to rub his back. When he continues coughing, she stands up and excuses herself to ask for water at the counter.

After she leaves, Kirishima sighs loudly again. He peels himself off the surface of the table and sits upright.

"Well, whatever, I forgive you, I know you didn't mean for this to happen." He scratches the back of his head uneasily. "But, man, this is seriously crazy. We're gonna get chewed out at the office on Monday."

Yeah, they sure would, if the angry phone call Katsuki had received from one of his managers is any indication. It probably didn't help that Katsuki had just yelled back and hung up instead of trying to explain himself.

As of the last hour, Katsuki has received over 3,720 notifications on Twitter related to the incident. While some are direct reports from people who had been there, most are from trolls who have twisted the series of events into exaggerated versions. There's even a rumor floating around now that he and Kirishima had kissed on stage.

When Katsuki had seen that, he'd been raring to go back to the school and raze it to the ground, but both Kirishima and Ochaco had convinced him to let his agency's publicity team handle it.

So instead he's at this shitty café, trying to overpower the nasty taste this whole incident has left in his mouth with a mug of the blackest coffee they had in the menu.

"So, how do you think they'll react?" Kirishima asks, and Katsuki frowns in annoyed confusion.

Kirishima's eyes dart to Ochaco, who's still at the counter. In a hushed tone, he clarifies, "Her parents. Surely, they've heard about this by now."

As if on cue, the phone that Ochaco had left in her chair begins to vibrate from an incoming call. Katsuki steals a glance and his blood runs cold.

It's her mom.

Ochaco returns to the table with water for everyone, which she almost spills in her rush to grab her phone. She presses the screen against her stomach to hide the caller ID, and Katsuki keeps a pokerface on to pretend that he hasn't already seen it.

"I'll just step out and take this call, okay?" Ochaco says nervously before hurrying outside.

Through the glass windows of the shop, Katsuki spies her retreating to one side of the entrance before putting the phone up against her ear. She's completely out of their hearing range where she is.

"It could just be a routine check on her," Kirishima offers with an apprehensive smile. "Don't look so glum, man. It could be nothing."

"Nothing, my ass," Katsuki barks. "Probably telling her to leave the boyfriend who's cheating on her with a guy."

"Aw, come on, you don't really think they'd believe that rumor so quickly. I mean, it's a bunch of high schoolers spreading it."

"I wouldn't put anything past them at this point," Katsuki mutters darkly. He throws his head back to drown his coffee in one go. The bitterness leaves him reeling afterward, and he's gagging again by the time Ochaco returns.

"Geez, Katsuki," she groans, rubbing his back. "Do you want me to get you more water?"

"No," he manages to spit out. "Just tell me what your mom told you on the phone. I know it was her, no use hiding it."

To his surprise, she drops down her chair with a happy bounce and smiles.

"She's asking if you're okay."

Katsuki stares at her blankly.

"She doesn't use Twitter, but she heard some of the staff at the company talking about what happened. She called me to ask if you're okay."

"You mean like," Kirishima draws out the words like he's not sure where he's going, "she's asking if he's okay in the head?"

Katsuki growls at Kirishima, but Ochaco just grins.

"No! She's asking if he's okay. She gets that it must have been a misunderstanding, and she's wondering how Katsuki is coping."

"You're shitting me right now, " Katsuki accuses.

"I'm not," she insists. "I was surprised too, but she honestly just asked how you were doing! Isn't this great, Katsuki? Her opinion of you might be changing!"

Katsuki knits his brow, but it's Kirishima that verbalizes the question in his head. "How? Bakugo hasn't done anything yet to redeem himself."

Ochaco shrugs. "I don't know. But Mommy's not unreasonable. Maybe she's finally realizing that Katsuki is a good guy. I mean, I always say so."

The creases in Katsuki's forehead tighten. "Ochaco, they hate my guts. I yelled at your dad the first time they met me. They walked in on me half-naked in your bathroom. This makes no fucking sense."

"Who cares about that, Bakugo?" Kirishima dismisses. He pounds a fist into his palm excitedly. "This is an opening. An opening! Let's take advantage and go see them in Mie!"

"Kirishima, if you just want to go and see the ninja shit, you can go by yourself," Katsuki spits through grit teeth.

"Hey, this isn't about me!" Kirishima argues. "I'm just thinking it's good timing, you know? They're showing a bit of sympathy for you, so at the very least we know they wouldn't throw salt and drive you away at the door…"

He throws a hesitant glance at Ochaco. "They won't right, Uraraka-san?"

Ochaco considers the question, her lips coming together in a thoughtful pout. After a while, during which both boys waited breathlessly for her answer, she says, "No, I don't think they would. Not when he's already down like this."

"See, I'm right!" Kirishima claims triumpanthly, daring to reach forward and ruffle Katsuki's hair roughly like one would a dog.

Katsuki aptly barks angrily in response. "Knock it off, asshole!"

When Kirishima laughs at him, he moves to get up his chair and lunge, but then an idea flashes in his head and he abruptly sits back down.

"Katsuki, what's wrong?" Ochaco peeks at him in concern. He slowly turns his head to look at her, the cogs in his brain spinning and spinning, until…

"Let's go," he finally declares. "Let's go see them."

Kirishima pumps a fist in the air, but Katsuki ignores him, his attention focused intently on Ochaco, who stares back curiously.

"But before we go," he tells her, "there's something I'd like to ask of you."

Ochaco's throat swells as she takes a nervous gulp, but she nods at him to continue. He takes her hands in his and squeezes resolutely.

"I want you to meet my parents, Ochaco. Will you let me introduce you?"

* * *

 **A/N:**

Oh my god, this took ages, I know. Especially considering that it's a relatively weak chapter. Thing is, I am dying right now at work. I am going crazy with the amount of work, I am serious, like I'm at the point of a breakdown. That's why I decided I'd take a few hours off and work on something not related to work. Hence, this chapter.

I'm still very much committed to seeing this fanfic through to the end, but updates will be extremely slow. I apologize for that. I'll try to make the next chapter a bit more action-packed to make it a little bit more worth the wait.

Anyway, some notes:

1) I've mentioned this but just in case you forgot- Mie, Ochaco's canon hometown, is also where the town of Iga can be found. Iga is popular for ninja history, hence Katsuki's reference in this chapter. It was also mentioned by Kirishima when they first talked about it.

2) In the Shinto religion, salt wards off evil and purifies. Throwing salt at people is not a legit Shinto ritual, but I have seen it happen in manga / dramas when people want to drive away someone evil at the door.

3) Finally, I just want to gently remind my readers to please consider the culture and the setting in which this story takes place before you form any bad opinions of Ochaco. She's a Japanese girl who grew up in the countryside. It's reasonable characterization for her to be conservative. And just because she is conservative and acts according to what her conservative upbringing has taught her, doesn't mean she's embarrassed of Katsuki or doesn't care about him. She's 18 in this story- barely an adult. She's his first boyfriend. It would be unrealistic and bad writing if I made it seem like she already knows how to handle all the cognitive dissonance thrown her way.


	10. Nothing Comes Close

**Chapter 10: Nothing Comes Close**

"Good morning!" Ochaco chrips. "I'm Uraraka Ochaco. Katsuki-san has been taking good care of me this past year. I'm very honored to be dating your son."

She nervously waits for a reaction, which comes in the form of Katsuki shaking his head and loudly scoffing. She frowns at him.

"'I'm very honored to be dating your son'. That's what fucking Deku told you to say?" He asks in disdain. "'Honored', my ass. Is this the Showa era?"

Ochaco sighs dejectedly before taking a bite off her yakitori.

"I don't see anything wrong about saying I'm honored," she complains. "Are you sure you're not just shooting it down because it's from Deku?"

"That's part of it," Katsuki candidly admits.

It's no secret he's pissed that she'd gone to that fucking nerd for advice, even after she's correctly pointed out that Deku is the only other person she knows who's familiar with the Bakugo family.

"But also, my folks aren't all that traditional. Just be normal. There's no need for uptight shit like that."

"Even so, Katsuki," Ochaco argues as she chews. "I want your parents to have a good impression of me. If you don't like me going to Deku, then give me serious advice."

Katsuki runs a hand through his hair moodily. "Well, for one, don't talk when your mouth is full."

Ochaco swallows her food in one gulp and indignantly claims, "Of course I'm not going to do that in front of your parents!"

Her gaze leaves his as she shyly mumbles, "I'm just too comfortable around you now to mind my manners sometimes. But I'm not going to be like that in front of anyone else."

He smirks at that last bit, all his annoyance gone in a snap.

"Manners are one thing," he says coolly, "but I was going to say that talking while eating makes you look like a squirrel."

Ochaco aims a kick at his shin under the table but he swiftly dodges. "It's the cheeks, you know," he continues with a wicked grin. "Roundface."

They're on one of their post-work dates, having dinner and drinks at an izakaya near her office, and Ochaco has insisted on rehearsing how she's supposed to greet his parents for the first time on Saturday.

Honestly, he thinks this is pointless, but no matter how many times he repeats that his parents already love her and she doesn't need to do anything special, her anxiety just wouldn't go away.

"I'm not kidding around, Katsuki," Ochaco whines. "Help me out."

"You're overthinking this," he tells her impatiently. "Just be polite, bring a gift– the old hag likes cheesecake– wear something decent."

At these words, Ochaco pales and gasps audibly.

"What?" Katsuki asks, confused.

"Clothes," she whispers, her eyes blown wide in horror. "I haven't planned what to wear! I don't have anything to wear!"

"Your normal clothes are fine. What's the big deal?"

Ochaco shakes her head vigorously.

"All my clothes are from Shinamura!" She says a bit too loudly. "Your parents work in fashion. How can I meet them in a 1000-yen dress?!"

That's the biggest overreaction Katsuki has heard from Ochaco in a while. He's tempted to snort and tell her so, but they've fought about his attitude plenty enough times for him to know that it's better to keep his mouth shut in a situation like this.

"Wait, I know! I'll borrow clothes from Yaoyorozu-san!" She announces, suddenly shooting up her seat in excitement.

The sudden movement startles Katsuki and draws the attention of everyone else in the izakaya, but Ochaco is too absorbed in her own thoughts to notice.

"She's rich and always dresses pretty. I'm sure she has… oh, but the fit is going to be all wrong, won't it?" She wails. "I'm not as tall or slim as Yaoyorozu-san, and I'm only a B-cup!"

Katsuki yanks on Ochaco's arm to forcibly sit her back down. "Are you stupid?!" He chastises through grit teeth, his face burning. "Don't talk about your boobs in public. You're getting weird stares!"

He normally wouldn't care, as he's prone to making scenes himself, except most of the heads that have turned at Ochaco's declaration are attached to male bodies, and he definitely doesn't appreciate the increased attention they're suddenly giving his girlfriend.

"Woah, did Uravity just announce her bust size?"

"They look bigger in her costume. You thnk that's padding?"

"They do look like B's now, but I need a closer look to tell for sure."

Only then does Ochaco realize how loud she's made her statement. She turns red all the way down to her neck, and she tries to disappear from view by sinking as low in her chair as possible.

Katsuki glares murder at the surrounding tables and snarls like a wild animal. "What are you staring at, you little shits? Mind your own business!"

If these assholes ogled Ochaco's boobs even a second longer, he would gouge their eyes out with a fork. He lets a tiny explosion cackle on his palms as a final warning.

Everyone seems to get the message, and pretty quickly the izakaya is back to ringing with a cacophony of chatter that has nothing to do with Uravity, though the atmosphere remains charged with tension.

Satisfied, Katsuki turns back to face Ochaco, who's still small and shy in her chair. He clicks his tongue at her and scowls.

"Sorry," she mumbles meekly. "I'll be more careful."

"You should," he agrees dryly. "We already have enough shitty rumors being said about us."

After the news about Katsuki dating Kirishima blew up to massive proportions on the Internet, their hero agency had made the two of them issue an official statement to apologize for the misunderstanding.

Of course, Ochaco's name was inevitably dragged into it, since it was a crucial detail in explaining how the whole situation even came about. Her relationship with Katsuki was formally announced, and now everyone knows they're dating.

It wasn't the cool reveal Katsuki had hoped for. It also received a host of mixed reactions, the worst of them being conspiracy theories about how this whole "relationship" was a coverup initiated by Katsuki's hero agency, who didn't support him coming out of the closet.

But, honestly, Katsuki couldn't give two shits.

No matter the way it was announced, no matter the rumors that are spreading around, everyone knows now that he's dating Ochaco, and the effect has been pretty damn amazing.

The more rabid of his fangirls have left, and while his managers have raised it as cause for concern, Katsuki could jump for joy.

All those crazy bitches ever did anyway was cause him trouble with Ochaco, who always got jealous like an idiot whenever some overly obsessed fan sent him unsolicited sexy photos on Twitter.

He'd once tried to defend to Ochaco that all male heroes got them, but she'd immediately countered that Deku's fans sent him photos of their babies, not their boobs, and Katsuki quickly lost the argument.

Fucking Deku.

In any case, that's a thing of the past now. He's been getting less of it after it's been made official that he's off the market. Most of his remaining fangirls are decent people who have congratulated him after the announcement.

Even better, Katsuki has now been able to demonstrate that he values his relationship with Ochaco more than easy access to a gaggle of women who would readily sleep with him if he asked.

Ochaco's dad can suck on that!

And he might actually have, since he's agreed to accept a visit from Katsuki and Ochaco in a few weeks' time, after the busy period at their construction company has passed.

Victory is close; Katsuki can sure as fuck sense it now. A smirk tugs at the corners of his mouth at the thought.

Ochaco peers at him curiously, and he gestures at what little remained of her meal.

"Are you done?" He asks. "Let's get out of here."

Ochaco looks hurt. "Are you that mad about me making a scene? I already apologized."

"No, idiot," Katsuki tells her blandly. "There's about an hour left before the malls close. Weren't you whining about not having anything to wear on Saturday?"

Her jaw drops, and her eyes go round and wide in surprise. "You'll shop with me?" She sounds almost incredulous.

"If you want." Katsuki shrugs dismissively.

He fights to keep a smile at bay, but the struggle ultimately ends in vain when Ochaco's response is to squeal and beam brightly at him.

* * *

Ochaco doesn't look too convinced with the dress he's handed her to try on. She holds the dress up and frowns at the obviously low neckline .

"Are you sure about this one?" She asks. "Doesn't it look too… sexy?"

"Does it?" Katsuki feigns. "I think my parents would say it's stylish."

Ochaco gives him a lingering look of suspicion, but relents and disappears into a fitting booth with the dress.

Katsuki only lets himself grin after the curtain closes behind her.

No way that dress is suitable for a meeting with his parents, or anything other than a hot date, actually. But this is probably the only time in their lives that he'll ever get to see Ochaco in a dress like that. He's not telling her shit until she tries it on.

"Um, Katsuki," she calls from inside the fitting booth. "I really don't think this is appropriate for Saturday.

"Yeah? Why don't you come out and show me?" He suggests, keeping his voice neutral.

There's a beat of silence as Ochaco hesitates.

"Hurry up," he urges. "The mall is closing soon."

Ochaco's hand gingerly sweeps the curtain to the side, and the rest of her body soon come into view. Katsuki is vaguely aware of his mouth falling open.

The dress had looked sexy on the rack, but on an actual person, it's unbelievable. It reveals far too much, even more than what he'd expected. No wonder Ochaco hadn't wanted to come out.

She looks incredibly embarrassed, the pink in her cheeks a richer shade than usual. She folds her arms against her chest in an act of modesty, but it accomplishes the opposite effect and further accentuates what the deep plunge of the neckline fails to conceal.

Katsuki feels the inside of his mouth go dry. He'd been eager to see Ochaco wearing something mature and sexy for once, but this dress is fucking ridiculous.

Even a seasoned playboy would be flustered at this sight, and he's a 19-year-old who's just one experience shy of being a virgin. He stood no chance at all.

Peeling his eyes off of her and looking off to the side, he clears his throat and swallows what little saliva he had left.

"Uh, yeah, it looks stupid. Go get changed."

"Hm… what's that?"

He's confused by the question. "What? I said you should–"

He almost chokes in surprise when he turns back to look at her and sees her approaching instead. She extends an arm above his shoulder, and his body explodes in goosebumps when the skin of her wrist brushes against his ear.

"What… what the hell, Ochaco?" He breathes, eyes wide in disbelief, his ribcage about to shatter from the pounding of his heart.

Ochaco points to a raised rack behind his head. "I noticed that dress from the fitting booth. Looks nice, doesn't it?"

The rush that had taken over his body leaves Katsuki in an instant.

He looks up at the dress in question, pulls it off the rack a bit more roughly than necessary, and shoves it into her outstretched hand.

"Here," he says flatly.

"What's with you, suddenly getting mad?" Ochaco asks, annoyed. "I already tried on your recommendation and you said yourself it looks stupid."

Well, it's not about that at all, but Katsuki's not about to confess that he'd mistaken her to be making a pass at him and that he got all excited for nothing.

He's about to tell her to just try on her stupid dress, when his ears pick up whispers coming from a short distance away."

"Are you sure Uravity is in this store? I don't see her."

"I saw her coming in, she must be near the back, where the fitting booths are."

Shit, Uravity fanboys.

Ochaco doesn't seem to have heard the approaching men, and makes no move to hide. Katsuki's eyes, however, dart to her overly exposed cleavage, and he decides that there's no way in hell he's going to let a photo of that become the next trending image on the Internet.

He quickly grabs Ochaco by the shoulders, steers her toward the fitting booth and pushes her inside. He grabs the curtain and moves to shut it, only to realize in the next split second that his presence is a dead giveaway to her location.

Without any time to think of an alternative, he slips inside and closes the curtain behind himself. Ochaco looks horrified.

"Katsuki, what are you doing?" She whimpers in alarm.

"Shut up for a minute," he chastises in a low voice.

"But–"

He cuts her off by drawing her into an embrace and pressing her against him. She's paralyzed by shock long enough for the situation to explain itself.

"She's not here either," a voice says from outside.

"That's weird," another voice replies, sounding perplexed. "I saw her enter the store with my own eyes!"

Ochaco unburies her face from Katsuki's chest and looks up at him. 'Quiet,' he mouths silently, and she nods.

He turns his eyes toward the single piece of fabric separating them from the outside. He primes himself to attack in case someone pries the curtain open.

"We've circled the entire place, but no Uravity," the first voice points out. "Are you sure it wasn't just your imagination?"

"Well," the second voice wavers now. "It… it could have been someone with the same hair, I guess."

The first voice groans. "You got my hopes up, you know! I thought I was finally going to see my goddess in the flesh. I wanted an autograph for my shrine!"

"S-sorry, okay? I'm disappointed too!"

The voices trail off as the pair of fanboys leave the vicinity. Katsuki counts a few more seconds of silence before he starts breathing again.

Then the reality of the situation he's put himself in crashes onto him in full force.

He's in a cramped fitting booth with Ochaco pressed tightly enough against him that he can fully feel her. The realization heightens his senses, and suddenly, he's hyper aware of all the places where they're touching.

His heart starts pounding madly again.

He's suffocating in air that smells a mixture of her familiar fruity shampoo and the scent of her skin.

His limbs are shaking, his pulse is roaring in his ears. He can't take this. He has to get out of this situation before he explodes.

"Katsuki," Ochaco whispers. "Think they're gone now?"

He lets himself peer down at her in his arms, and it's the worst thing he could have done.

She's flushed, from the roots of her hair, to her neck, and all the way down to her chest, which her dress is doing nothing to hide.

It reminds Katsuki of how she'd looked that night they slept together: hot and embarrassed and full of desire all at the same time.

The sight of her like this is enough to make him lose his mind.

His hand moves up from her shoulder to cradle the back of her head, and he holds her firmly in place as he crashes a kiss down on her lips.

She goes rigid as a statue, but she doesn't pull away, and he continues to kiss her, over and over, desperate and pleading, until finally, her arms wrap themselves tightly around him and her mouth responds with a kiss of her own.

* * *

Katsuki peers cautiously through a gap in the curtain and makes sure the coast is clear before he slips out of the fitting booth. He leaves Ochaco inside so she can change into that second dress she'd picked out.

He feels feverish, his entire body tingling and screaming at him to get the hell back in there with Ochaco and finish what they'd started.

But he can't do that.

He had made her a promise and he'd rather swallow a thousand needles than break it now. What he'd done was already out of line. What if they'd been unable to stop?

When Ochaco kissed him back, he'd taken it as permission to keep going. He let his hands go all over her then, touching places that should have been out of bounds given their promise not to be intimate for the meantime.

She'd reciprocated his attention, too, and they made out until the pent-up frustration from their several weeks of abstinence was fully resolved.

Well, almost.

In the past, this would have been enough to tide Katsuki over for a while, but now that he's had sex, he knows that no amount of making out could compare.

He's sure Ochaco feels the same way. He'd seen it on her face after they finally pulled apart trying to catch their breath, and his gut had told him that if he asked to go home with her then, she would agree.

But he had also known that if he took advantage of that moment to change her mind about something she obviously feels strongly about, he would never be able to live with himself.

So he'd forcefully ripped his eyes off the erotic expression she was making, released her from his embrace, and muttered that she should carry on with her shopping before the store closed.

And now he's here, rapidly pacing the small space in front of the fitting booths and playing a word game in his head to try and get his blood flowing elsewhere.

The curtain to the fitting booth slides open again and this time Ochaco emerges in a dress that covers her up properly. So properly that Katsuki can't see any of the marks their little activity should have left on her body.

"This one works, I think," Ochaco says timidly. She's glowing a bright pink and doesn't meet his eyes.

Katsuki grunts in agreement. "Yeah, looks good. Go ahead and buy that. I'll wait for you outside."

He's begun to walk away when she calls out to him.

"Um, Katsuki, wait."

He stops in his tracks, but keeps his back to her.

"About… about earlier… I was thinking… maybe… maybe we shouldn't–"

"Don't worry about it anymore, Ochaco."

Katsuki talks over her loudly. He already knows what she's about to say. He gets it already, and he's berated himself enough. He doesn't need to hear it from her, too.

"No, um, what I'm saying is–"

"I know," he cuts her off again. "I know I went overboard."

"Katsuki, actually–"

"It's not going to happen again, so don't worry," he says with finality. This time, he plucks the courage to turn around and face her.

Ochaco opens her mouth, as though to keep on arguing, but after a beat, she closes it again and slowly nods instead. "Okay," she says simply. "If you say so."

There's emotion showing in her eyes that Katsuki can't put a name to, but the moment passes before he can figure it out.

Taking a deep breath, he strides steadily toward her. He thrusts his hands into his pockets to avoid touching her unnecessarily, then places a soft, chaste kiss on the top of her head.

* * *

 **A/N:**

Hey, guys, leave me a nice little comment if you liked this chapter and tell me how you feel because it honestly makes my day and gets me motivated to keep writing. :)

1) "'Honored', my ass. Is this the Showa era?"  
The Showa era refers to the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito) from December 1926 until January 1989. It is still common to state the year as "XX era, year X". For example, they just changed their emperor in May, so we are currently in "Reiwa Era, Year 1". Katsuki asking if this is the Showa era is basically him saying that he finds the statement very old-fashioned.

2) "They're on one of their post-work dates, having dinner and drinks at an izakaya near her office"  
An izakaya is like an informal pub, popular for after-work drinking.

3) "All my clothes are from Shinamura!"  
The store name is a parody of Shimamura, an actual clothing store line in Japan. It's popular for being cheap, but not necessarily in a good way. Reputation aside, though, I hear the clothes here are pretty good quality. A friend gave me a top from here and I don't see anything wrong with it! I feel like it would be very in character for Ochaco to shop here since brand name wouldn't matter to her as much as the cost.

4) Katsuki's parents working in fashion  
This was mentioned in an omake. His parents met at work, and it was some kind of fashion-related job.

5) "He had made her a promise and he'd rather swallow a thousand needles than break it now."  
This is a reference to yubikiri, or pinky swearing, which in Japan is sealed with a vow that the person who lies has to swallow a thousand needles. "Finger cut-off, ten thousand fist-punchings, whoever lies has to swallow thousand needles." It's morbid, I know, but so are Western nursery rhymes if you think about it.


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